


Talaria

by Tokyo_the_Glaive



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Darcy Lewis-centric, F/M, Galentine's Day Exchange, Gen, Loki Redemption, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, fydlexchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 12:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6006442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tokyo_the_Glaive/pseuds/Tokyo_the_Glaive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis is born with a soulmark on her foot.  Perhaps understandably, her father is more worried about her future boyfriend than the Earth-shattering consequences of those few letters.</p><p>(Or, the one where Loki is Darcy's soulmate from the very first.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

Darcy was born with a mark on the sole of her foot.

“It doesn’t look like a mole,” the doctor told her parents.“It could be a soulmark.If it is, I can’t read what it says, but it doesn’t look English.”

Darcy’s mother extended her arms to take back her baby.Darcy’s father puffed out his chest and frowned.

“We’ll see,” he said.The doctor smiled awkwardly.

“There’s my girl,” Darcy’s mother cooed.Baby Darcy cried, hungry and cold. 

* * *

Loki had a splitting headache, ringing ears, and an itch on one foot.

The timing could not have been worse.He and Thor were on a diplomatic mission to Vanaheim representing their mother.There was no crisis—not yet, at least—but Odin preferred an abundance of caution to chaos and war.As it was, there had been stirrings of conflict on Vanaheim prior to their arrival.Frigga had requested Thor and Loki be sent to visit her mother and father, their grandparents, as a show of friendship and to demonstrate that Asgard hoped to keep peace, not to conquer and lay claim.

Loki needed to concentrate—not only because it was important that they be goodwill ambassadors, but because he had to keep a tight leash on Thor.Thor, who he’d already had to restrain twice from challenging some hapless knights to duels to prove his strength.The last thing they needed was for Thor to get ideas about brawling.All their work, social and mundane though it had been thus far, would be for naught.

Loki rubbed his temples and sighed as quietly as he knew how.There was a baby screaming somewhere, he knew it.If he could just _silence it_ —

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about any of his problems without drawing undo attention to himself.He did his best to smile and make polite conversation, choosing his words carefully so that his hosts did most of the talking.It would pass, he told himself.

(If he broke a lantern by accident later that night after discovering marks where there had previously been smooth skin on the sole of his foot, he never told anyone.)

* * *

A couple decades later, Darcy _knew_ she had a soulmark on her foot.  She knew, too, that whoever she’d managed to be linked to wasn’t American.  Darcy’s first semester roommate at Culver, a pothead who fancied herself a witch, proudly told Darcy that the marks on her foot were runes.  Darcy didn’t believe her for a second, mostly because her roommate had also tried to read her future once and told her that “her prince”—and Darcy’s roommate was emphatic about that part—would try to kill her, but Darcy would turn him off of the path to evil and they’d live happily ever after.

Right.Sure.

Anyway, Darcy couldn’t afford to worry too much about her soulmate.Her plans to study abroad had fallen through because she hadn’t satisfied her distribution requirements—apparently, not taking all six PE credits was a big deal.She’d planned on going abroad, seeing the sights, and perhaps track down her non-American soulmate, but with that off the table, short of sticking it out and going nowhere, there was only one option.

“Hi,” Darcy said, sitting down at one of the back tables in a café just a few blocks from her dorm.There was a large sign that said DARCY LEWIS in enormous capital letters sitting on the table.Another person, a woman who looked too young to be who Darcy was supposed to meet, was already sitting there.“I’m Darcy.”

“Oh!” The woman snatched up the sign and shoved it under her seat.“I didn’t know how else to… Hi,” she said.“I’m Jane Foster.”

They shook hands awkwardly, and Darcy banged her elbow on the table.Dr. Foster smiled at her. _Awkward scientist_ , Darcy told herself.

“So,” Darcy said, “thanks for agreeing to interview me.”

“Not a problem,” Dr. Foster said.“Shall we get started?”

Darcy sat back.“Sure,” she said.

Dr. Foster cleared her throat.“So, I read through your application.You’re a political science major?”

“That’s right,” Darcy said.“I’m planning on writing my thesis with Dr. Moutsatsos.She’s the one who told me who told me about your internship.”

“Why did you apply?”

“I didn’t want to spend my second to last year at Culver still at Culver,” Darcy answered honestly.Jane smiled and looked at the table. _She can sympathize_ , Darcy realized.

“Have you ever taken a course in astrophysics?” Dr. Foster asked, looking back up.

Darcy swallowed.This was the question that could sink the ship.Dr. Foster already had Darcy’s transcript; she knew the answer to her own question before she’d asked it, so Darcy had to make her response count.

“No,” Darcy said, “but I can drive like no one’s business and I make good coffee.”For a moment, she thought the glib response wasn’t going to fly.When she saw the hungry look in Dr. Foster’s eyes, though, she knew she was _set_.

* * *

Loki had a plan.  He was a little nervous, a little unsure, but he had a plan and he was going to _stick to it_.

He had a feeling in his gut like it was time to take a risk.He needed to do this, he reasoned.It was ridiculously cold on Jotunheim, but he felt warm—unnaturally warm, he thought.He smelled something lovely, black pepper and cloves and something like tea but not.He wondered, fleetingly, if that was his soulmate.He got glimpses of her, sometimes.He’d never seen her, but he felt what she did sometimes, her joy and her sorrow alike.He thought of her often, though as the years had gone by, his ability to set the time aside to find her had diminished.He’d waited, knowing that she had been born that night in Vanaheim— _so young_ , Loki had been afraid, they were too far apart in age, he wouldn’t be able to—

But he’d gotten over that.The problem was Thor and the coronation.Once that was set aside, either nixed or otherwise postponed, Loki would be able to lay eyes on her once and for all.He hoped she would be as glad to see him as he would be to see her.

For now, though, with the snippet of her life Loki had been granted, he was glad for her.She was someplace warm, sure of herself and her surroundings.He envied her for that, wherever she was.Loki didn’t know how to pronounce the name he’d found years ago on Vanaheim, but he was sure she wasn’t on Asgard.He didn’t recognize the alphabet or the syllables, but he would, one day.

For now, he had to see a man about a break-in. 

* * *

Darcy drove all the way from Culver to New Mexico with Dr. Foster—“Call me Jane, please”—in the passenger seat.A Dr. Erik Selvig was going to meet them there in a few weeks time.Darcy hadn’t quite banked on this much driving, and she was really tired of the strip scene and the desert by the time it was over, but Jane was nice enough.She talked incessantly about science.She tended to get carried away, but when Darcy guided her, asking questions early and often, she could explain even the most complicated physics remarkably well.

That first night, after they set up Jane’s trailer and unloaded the van, they sat under the stars and talked.It was dark and cold and under any other circumstances Darcy would have hated it, being this far from everything.She liked to keep a finger on the pulse of the world.She’d developed the habit of staying in touch with global news in high school, and her fascination with politics had only grown since then.

“You should be a physicist,” Jane told her.“You ask such interesting questions.I mean, I’ve been studying this for years—”

Darcy laughed.Jane glared at her.

“—I have been, don’t laugh, and some of the things you question I take for granted.I like having you here.You could go far in this.”

“I don’t think I could understand it from someone else,” Darcy admitted.

“Sure you could,” Jane said.“You’re smart.”

“In some ways,” Darcy said.She looked at Jane, already preoccupied by the stars.She could never hope to match that brain, not when it came to this sort of science.“Coffee?” she asked. 

* * *

All of Loki’s plans were in place.He’d deliberately left out information about the Destroyer—the Frost Giants couldn’t _actually_ steal the Casket of Ancient Winters, that would be a right disaster—and the coronation was coming up.No one suspected him of a thing, and nothing could happen until he lifted the barriers that he himself had put into place between Asgard and Jotunheim.

All he had to do was sit back and wait, and wait he did.He smiled and clapped Thor on the back and sparred, fighting harder than he was wont to do, just for show.He wanted to make a point, and he did, to an extent.

“You’ve improved, my son,” Odin said.Loki took the compliment in stride, but noted that Thor still took most of Odin’s attention.Thor himself boasted about becoming king, about the accolades he would bestow upon Lady Sif and the Warriors Three.That kind of talk grated on Loki’s ears, but he remained silent.

“My brother,” Thor told him, speaking to him at long last, “I will not forget you in my rule.”

Loki smiled thinly and said something trite to turn Thor’s gaze away from him.Of course he would.Thor was too brash, always teetering on the edge of violence and passion.He would burn Asgard to the ground in a drunken night and would only notice when he didn’t get his breakfast the next day.

Loki bided his time, and in a flash the day of the coronation was upon them.Everything was going so well.

* * *

Jane’s research was complicated.Darcy spent her days poring through equations, trying to figure out what exactly Jane had built, how it worked, and how to keep it up and running.

“Why does this go here?” Darcy called, holding up something that looked like a garden post.

“Because we need to alter the transition frequency,” Jane said.

“I thought that’s what this did,” Darcy said, holding up a chip.

“That’s the transistor.”

“Oh.”

It was quiet for a long moment.Darcy felt apprehensive, like she was supposed to be doing something else, but this was the job Jane had given her.Carefully, Darcy slid the not-a-garden-post into it’s designated slot and placed the chip where it belonged.

“They don’t go in that order,” Jane said, startling Darcy.

“Yeah, they do,” Darcy said.

“No, they don’t.

Darcy resisted the urge to throw the equipment on the floor.“You wrote that they go in this order,” Darcy said, “right here.”She pointed at a handwritten note, one of dozens that littered the floor before her.

Jane picked it up and squinted.“Wait,” she said, “but if that’s how…”She walked away, then came back.“You’re right, but that means I have to readjust the calculation…”

They’d found a bunch of little things like this over the past few weeks—little contradictions.None of it, Jane told Darcy, jeopardized the work she’d done so far, mostly because she hadn’t done any work-up and none of the calibrations had been off, but it was annoying and would make publishing it all a real pain in the ass.

Darcy shivered violently, suddenly very cold, then stood and went for the coffee pot.She needed a warm-up, and Jane probably needed an IV drip of caffeine with all the work she hoped to accomplish.Selvig was set to arrive in a few hours, at which point Jane had predicted the next “event” would occur.

Darcy was still a little unsure of the nature of these “events”.Jane had tried to describe it to her—a disturbance in the sky, like the aurora borealis, but Darcy had never seen anything like it outside of Youtube videos and remained uncertain.She had wisely not asked if all of the contradictions in the math and the protocol meant that the prediction calculations were off.Jane kept saying that the calibration was all that mattered, and so far, Jane had been on point, or so she’d said.Darcy hoped to whatever god was out there that it stayed that way.Jane was cool.Darcy wanted her to do well.

* * *

When Selvig arrived at long last, they piled into that van with all of Jane’s home-made equipment and drove out into the desert.  Darcy had to veer off of the road early on, and the rough terrain meant she was bouncing in her seat, but she’d have been lying if she said she wasn’t having fun.

“Stop here,” Jane said.Carefully, Darcy brought the rickety old van to a stop.Jane opened the roof up and stood, looking at the sky.Darcy took one look up, checked the time, and slumped in her seat.Fifteen minutes passed, and she echoed her motions.Still nothing.Darcy felt a pang in her chest.It wasn’t happening.

Every moment that passed felt like a knife in the gut.It was really cold out there in the dark, and she wished she’d brought a thicker sweater.She was disappointed—not in Jane, but in the universe for not doing this for her.

Then she caught sight of something very, very strange in one of the side view mirrors.

* * *

Loki did not shake.  He felt hollow and ill—he hadn’t expected Thor to _invade Jotunheim_ , how could he have not foreseen that his brother would take the _most moronic course of action_ —

And now Thor was banished.That had its upsides and its downsides.Loki risked a glance down at his arm, the one the brace had broken off of when—

Loki couldn’t complete a thought.His mind raced in all directions.Perhaps worst of all, he felt powerless, and—was that _fear_?What did he have to be afraid of?

A glance at Odin and Heimdall reminded him. _If anyone found out…_ But they wouldn’t, Loki reasoned.No one knew.He had used these cloaking spells for years, making sure no one saw through his illusions and veils.He had nothing to fear, but many questions that needed answering.

* * *

Darcy tasered a man who appeared to have fallen from the sky because she was momentarily terrified.  She then helped Erik and Jane drag him into the back of the van.

“Hospital,” Jane said, breathlessly.She glanced back at the man who was currently drooling on the floor of the van. Darcy hit the gas, doing her best to ignore the backflips her stomach was doing of its own accord, and they were on their way.

* * *

“He said his name was Thor,” Jane said, when the hospital paperwork was done and they were back at the trailer.  Erik was sleeping in his car.  He’d been counting on a hotel, but Puente Antiguo didn’t have anything quite like that, so he’d settled for purchasing a few extra blankets and hunkering down where he was.

“Yeah,” Darcy said.“That’s the name of one of the Norse gods.”Jane looked at her sideways.Darcy flushed.“I did some research a few years ago.Personal interest.”

(She certainly hadn’t been going off of the slim-to-none chance that her roommate was on the right track—not with princes or whatever, but with the runes and stuff.It made sense to check.)

“Erik said something similar,” Jane said.She looked up at the stars.“I wonder where he came from.”

“The prints we took are developing now,” Darcy said, rather superfluously.

“I know,” Jane said, “I’m just curious.You know.”

Darcy was about to say something when all at once she felt freezing.She stopped short, holding her sweater closer to her, even as she began shaking.Her hands felt like they were going to fall off, she felt so cold.

“What’s wrong?” Jane asked.

Darcy swallowed.Something like—like _rage_ and _betrayal_ and _sadness_ , so much _sadness_ —they all welled in her at once.

Darcy exhaled, inhaled, exhaled.She’d always been good at controlling emotions.She could handle this.Still, she came to sit down next to Jane, who looked more concerned with each passing moment.

“I’m fine,” Darcy said.Her voice was faint, as if she’d been hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer.

“You look terrible,” Jane said plainly.

“I feel terrible, all of a sudden,” Darcy said.“I think my soulmate’s, uh, not doing so well.”

Jane’s eyes brightened.Darcy could see the stars reflected in them and hoped that Jane had a wonderful future ahead of her.

“You have a soulmate?” Jane asked.“What’s that like?”

Darcy felt her heart breaking in her chest, and it had nothing to do with her own soulmate, not at all.

* * *

(Amidst his own whirlwind of emotions, Loki registered a feeling that was not his own—heartbreak, he thought.  His soulmate felt sadness, almost rivaling his own, directed at someone else.  As if he needed something else—)

* * *

Jane tended toward early morning inspiration, something that irked Darcy _to no end_.

“He was there!” Jane said.Darcy only heard a garble as she was pulled rather unceremoniously from deep sleep.She wasn’t paying attention to Jane; instead, she checked her phone. _Quarter past two in the goddamn morning_.Darcy was going to kill the woman she was interning under, and it hadn’t even been a month.

“We have to find him!” Jane was breathless.

“Jane,” Darcy tried.

“He could have seen something!”

“ _Jane_.”

Jane paused, looking at Darcy.Jane was close enough that, even without her glasses, Darcy could see her reasonably well, but her hair dissolved into a fuzzy blur at the edges and the back of the still-dark trailer ( _because it was an unholy hour of the morning, damn it, Jane_ ) was a complete blank.

“Right,” Jane said.“Normal people hours.”

“Night,” Darcy said.She rolled over and was out in moments.

* * *

Loki felt himself woken from deep sleep by seemingly nothing at all.  He glared at the ceiling for what seemed like a long while and debated getting up.  No one had come to notify him of Odin’s state, which meant he was still in the Odinsleep.  Loki shut his eyes and willed himself to sleep.  He couldn’t figure out how to salvage this mess, not yet.  He would—in time.  For now, he needed rest, and—

He was out almost as soon as he had the thought.

* * *

When Darcy woke again, the prints were developed, and it looked to all the world that not only had the guy who called himself Thor been in the storm, he had _fallen out of the sky_.  Erik didn’t believe it for a moment, Jane spouted some nonsense about an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and Darcy tried to figure out how powerful her taser actually was to have downed someone who appeared to have fallen out of thin air.

Jane offered to drive them all to the hospital to find Thor to ask him a few questions, and Darcy let her take the keys.Much as she knew every quirk and defect in Jane’s broken-down van by heart, she felt a little too odd to keep her attention fully on the road.

The thing was, she felt _inspired_ , as if she owned the world.She felt utterly confidant and sure of herself, more than ever before.It seemed that everything belonged to her, and only her, and that everything was going to come up roses.

Naturally then, it only made sense that Thor was nowhere to be found after the three of them checked in for visiting hours.There was a great deal of broken glass and equipment nearby, but no sign of the peculiar man.

Slightly defeated, Darcy climbed back into the van.She reloaded her taser as Jane made the _insane_ plan to go find the guy who’d clearly been the source of the damage they’d seen in the hospital—Darcy thought that she and Erik were on the same page this time, Jane had completely lost her marbles—only to jump as Jane tried to back up, hit something, and screamed.

Needless to say, Darcy wasn’t expecting them to find Thor so soon.

Jane got him dressed—“You know, for a crazy homeless guy, he’s pretty cut,” Darcy remarked, earning an elbow to the ribs—and a plate of food at the greasy spoon that seemed to be the only real restaurant in the sad excuse for a town of Puente Antiguo.

* * *

His mother spoke of Thor and Loki felt—what? He remembered his brother’s—no, Thor’s, just Thor, not brother, not— Loki remembered Thor’s smile, not the boastful one but the honest one.  He felt a rush of affection for his—for _Thor_ —and grimaced at the thought.  Though he did his best to keep the gesture to himself, he saw something pass over his mother’s—Frigga—no—

Loki willed the moment to pass.He couldn’t do this if he felt something as weak-willed as _affection_.

* * *

A bunch of men in suits came and took everything.  Darcy sat on the roof of the building Jane had—rented? owned? Darcy wasn’t sure and didn’t particularly care except that a bunch of the fixtures had been damaged so someone was paying—with Erik and Jane and watched the caravan of black vans drive away.

All of Jane’s research, gone.It was her life’s work, and it was…

Darcy’s iPod, too.She felt the loss as keenly as Jane felt hers, she figured.Darcy had worked full-time to pay for college, and she’d saved money for years to buy an iPod.It was almost like her life’s work.Jane, of course, didn’t understand, but Darcy didn’t expect her to, not really, so she just frowned and stared at the sky.No one made a move to do anything, so Darcy figured anything went.

“I wonder where Thor went,” she said, coughing a little.

Jane shot up and nearly pitched forward.Erik snatched her sleeve before she fell off of the roof.“Oh!”

Darcy and Erik watched as she ran for the stairs back down into the lab.

“You had to remind her,” Erik said.“This is a bad idea.”Darcy shrugged.

“Gets her to stop moping for a moment,” she said.

From below, Jane called up to them to come down.Erik pulled Darcy to her feet and together they drove into town to find Thor for a second time.

It didn’t take long, all things considered.He was looking for a ride, and, Jane being Jane, she gave him one—leaving Darcy and Erik all but stranded in town.

“What do we do now?” Erik asked.

Darcy bit her lip.“They’re headed to that satellite crash, right?” she asked.“I bet those suits are over there.”

Erik sighed.“I didn’t sign up for this.”

“You and me both.”

* * *

Loki watched carefully as Thor fought his way through the Midgardian complex that had been built temporarily around Mjolnir.  Though stripped of many of his abilities, including the power to wield that infernal hammer, he fought much as he used to—ferociously.

Loki swallowed.He felt that same rush of—affection, he supposed.There was an element of protectiveness to it.

 _Protective?_ Of _Thor_?

He considered the feeling.It was there, in his chest but— He sighed.He’d gotten worse and worse at differentiating his soulmate’s feelings from his own.They were a constant barrage, and they threatened to disrupt what he’d worked so hard to build.

Unintentionally, of course, Loki reassured himself.His soulmate would never want to harm him.He’d never want to harm her, either.He wondered, not for the first time, what she looked like, what she’d see in him—

A tugging at the edges of his mind caught his attention.It wasn’t just affection his soulmate felt—Loki prickled to think of it directed anywhere but at himself—but _fear_.Wherever she was, she was afraid.

He needed to pay attention to Thor’s fight—if Thor reclaimed that hammer…

But he looked away for a moment.From the throne, he could see all, if he looked hard enough.He could find her.There was no need to wait any more.

Something else struck him.She was _afraid_.He could fix that.There wasn’t anything in the galaxy he couldn’t accomplish with the throne of Asgard.It would be wonderful—he would sweep in, the triumphant king, and sweep her off her feet and away from her fears.They’d be together, they could marry, he could crown her queen…

Loki leaned forward and reached along the tendrils of her fear.They were closer than he’d imagined—not so far off from Thor, as a matter of fact.

Loki frowned.His soulmate was on Midgard.Perhaps she’d been banished?They were two of a kind, then, she and himself.The object of her fears was close, by Loki’s estimation, but they weren’t face to face.She wasn’t in immediate danger, then, but that didn’t change the fact that she was afraid.

Gingerly, Loki reached for the source of his soulmate’s fear and realized that his soulmate was afraid _for_ someone, not of them.A picture formed in his mind: kind brown eyes, dirty blonde hair, staring at the stars…

Loki froze.The woman his soulmate was afraid for was with Thor. _His soulmate was sending Thor and this woman her affection._

A moment passed, and Loki sat back.His palms were sweaty, and his heart beat rapidly in his chest.A wave of anger and hatred passed over him.Thor meant to steal _this_ from him?After everything else?

A new idea formed in Loki’s mind: he couldn’t appear to his soulmate, not yet, not when… No.He had to take care of Thor first, after ensuring that she wouldn’t caught in the crossfire.That other woman, too—the blonde one—she’d have to be kept safe.His soulmate liked her.Even if she never found out that Loki was responsible for harming her, he would know, and the guilt would eat him.She was off-limits.

Thor was a different story.Loki didn’t just need him banished; no, no, that wouldn’t do. He needed Thor dead, and now.

Loki drew in a deep, deep breath.He knew exactly what he had to do.He just needed to make sure his soulmate didn’t pay the price.

* * *

“Just _shut up_!”

The words were out of Darcy’s mouth before she could recall them.She was so _angry_ , and why?Her hands gripped the steering wheel too hard, and she felt sick.It was dark and it was late—she and Erik had come to pick up Jane—and she was _so angry_ …

In the passenger seat beside her, Erik fell silent.Darcy heard nothing from Jane, stuck shivering and soaked in the backseat where Darcy couldn’t see her.

“Just…” Darcy tried to salvage the situation.She felt _rage_.“I’m sorry,” she said.She could hardly bring herself to mean it.“It’s…”

“It’s your soulmate, right?” Jane asked.It sounded to Darcy like she was fishing for an explanation.

Darcy nodded once.“They’re angry,” she said.“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

She pulled over to the side of the road.Rain beat against the windshield, and Darcy slumped over it.Erik clasped her on the shoulder, and Jane reached up from the backseat to touch her back.

“I’ll drive,” Erik said.Darcy shook her head.“No, it’s all right.It’s been a long day for all of us.”

“You’ll get soaked,” Darcy said to the steering wheel.

“Come on,” Erik said, opening the passenger door.“You climb over, I’ll come around the front.Make it fast, now.”

Darcy did as she was told, climbing to the passenger seat as Erik ran around the hood of the car.She buckled herself in as Erik readjusted the seat to match his longer legs.

“What do you think’s going to happen to Thor?” Darcy asked.

“He didn’t have any identification with him,” Erik said, “so he’ll be detained for some time.It looked like he’d done a lot of damage.”

A plan began brewing in Darcy’s mind.It was obvious that Jane had a mega-sized crush on the guy, and he’d been nice to her, so…

“Hey,” she said, “I’ve got an idea.”

* * *

Loki came to visit Thor, more for appearances than for anything else.  He came in person to try his hand at Mjolnir, but he sent Thor an illusion to act in his place.  Had they met face-to-face, Loki thought that the urge to kill Thor might have been just this side of too much.

As he returned to Asgard, he wondered if it would have been better to do it that way—in person, fast and without warning.He couldn’t, though.He could still see that honest, open smile in his mind.He told himself that it was an image that came from his soulmate.It wasn’t him.This wasn’t him.He wasn’t this weak.

(He hated himself for being willing to brand his soulmate as weak in his place.He was guilty, he was a monster, he was—)

* * *

Darcy felt the waves of self-loathing as if they were her own and wondered what in the _damn hell_ kind of drugs her soulmate was on to oscillate between incendiary rage and this sort of self-hatred.

She brushed the feelings aside as best as she could.She had Thor’s fake ID ready to go.So long as the suits weren’t super-government or anything, they shouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t real.It was good work, and Darcy could feel proud of herself for it.Whatever her soulmate was going through, it wasn’t her problem for the moment.

* * *

Loki watched and waited.  He kept his eyes fixed on Thor and only Thor.  He couldn’t be distracted, not now, so he deliberately ignored his soulmate.  She was there, Loki knew, though it would have taken a greater degree of concentration than he could currently afford to determine where.

A man tried to threaten Thor not to come back, then tried to outdrink him.Enormous mistake, Loki mused as he watched the two of them stumble like the drunken idiots they were.Only Volstagg could outlast Thor in a drinking match, and even that was a close thing.

When it came time—when Loki could wait no more—he made ready the Destroyer.

“Kill Thor,” he ordered it.“No harm will be done to…” He considered the name on his foot.He still wasn’t sure how to pronounce it.The Destroyer waited.“No harm will be done to my soulmate,” Loki said finally.

The Destroyer inclined its head, and Loki took that to mean understanding.

* * *

“This is Lady Sif,” Thor said proudly, “and the Warriors Three: Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun.  My friends, this is Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and Erik Selvig.”

Darcy very nearly dropped her cup of coffee.She glanced at Erik, who looked pale.As Thor and his friends conversed, Darcy came up beside him.

“Who are they?” she asked.

Erik shook his head.He couldn’t look away from the scene before them.“Legends,” he said.“Myths.Fairy tales.”

“They look pretty flesh and blood to me,” Darcy said.No sooner had she said so much than the first blasts rocked Puente Antiguo.Darcy wobbled and fell to the floor.

Jane, who had been preoccupied by the new arrivals, came to her side.

“Are you all right?” Jane asked.

“Yeah,” Darcy said, looking about.“Did anything break?”

Jane gave her a strange look, as did—Hogun, was it?

“What?” Jane asked.

“Huh?”Darcy looked to Erik, who was similarly confused.“I felt something shaking.”

“You’re rather well attuned for a Midgardian,” Lady Sif said.Her attention was directed outside.“We have company.”

“I think she’s just had too much caffeine,” Jane said, hoisting Darcy up.Darcy was fixed on Lady Sif, whose mouth was contorted into a grim line.No sooner had Jane spoken than the screams started.

* * *

Time passed in a violent blur.

Darcy didn’t know what to do with herself.She ran through the streets telling everyone she could find to drive away, as fast and as far as possible.She sounded crazy, possibly deranged, but against a backdrop of explosions and sirens, all she heard was “thank you” and “do you need a ride out?”

Darcy thought of Jane and shook her head no.Instead, she pushed people into their cars and watched them drive away.

The pet store had been mostly evacuated—she saw to that, though there was little time to do so.Thankfully, there weren’t too many caged animals with which to contend.

By the time she regrouped with Jane, an enormous metal robot was standing in the smoldering remains of half of Puente Antiguo.

“Tell me that’s not one of Stark’s,” Darcy said.

“I don’t think so,” Erik murmured.Darcy glanced down at him and paled.His shirt was soaked with blood, and it didn’t look like someone else’s.

“I’m fine,” Erik said.Darcy didn’t ask; Thor was approaching the robot, and she knew it couldn’t end well.

* * *

Loki hesitated for a moment before he made his decision.  There was something glimmering behind Thor, something sharp and bright.  Loki couldn’t _look_ at it so much as feel it.

She was down there.

He swallowed, then closed his eyes and sent the order.She would be fine; he’d ordered the Destroyer not to harm her.Thor had to die.There could be no going back.

* * *

Darcy and Erik held Jane back as the robot incinerated Thor.  Someone was screaming—many people, probably—but Darcy wasn’t among them.

Instead, her head was spinning.Bile rose in the back of her throat.

She felt _satisfied_ watching Thor die, and it was enough to bring her to her knees.

Except—except, Thor wasn’t dead, and suddenly Darcy felt _fear_ and _anger_ and…

Oh. _Oh_.

“Thor,” Erik was murmuring.Somewhere along the line Thor had gotten himself a costume change and a second lease on life, and Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were triumphant, and there were men in suits and—

Darcy sank to the dusty streets with a dull thud as she tried to get her breathing under control.

“My soulmate’s doing this,” Darcy said.Her voice was hoarse in her throat, and she willed the town to stop spinning.The ground felt solid enough, but as she looked up at Selvig, everything seemed to move and blur.

“Your soulmate’s doing what?” Erik asked, holding her shoulders.“Darcy, Darcy, look at me, it’s going to be okay.”

“This,” Darcy said, gesturing.“My soulmate’s doing this.”

If Erik had looked pale meeting Thor’s friends, he most closely resembled a corpse as he took Darcy’s meaning.

* * *

Loki felt all of the air leave his lungs.  Even as he sat on Odin’s throne— _his_ throne now, soon to be permanent—he pitched forward, clutching his chest.

Thor wasn’t dead.That was unfortunate, but without Heimdall to open the Bifrost, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Except—

 _She knew_.

Loki couldn’t quite describe how he understood.She was anguished, adrift, and scared. _Scared of him_.She knew, somehow, that he was responsible.

She thought he was a monster.

Loki held his head in his hands.He’d ruined the only relationship promised to him by the Norns, and he hadn’t even met her face to face.

Sitting up slowly, Loki ran a hand over his face.He could fix this, he thought. If he couldn’t, there was no reason not to throw himself off the edge of the Bifrost and hope that he suffocated sooner rather than later.


	2. The Middle

Darcy awoke disoriented and upset.She hadn’t even opened her eyes and already she felt like crying.Her blood pounded in her veins, and her head throbbed.Something was beeping, loud and regular.Darcy tried to see where she was, but she had to shut her eyes because there was a light in her face, bright and cold and relentless.

There came a screeching noise, and even more light hit Darcy’s eyes.She felt the pain even with her eyes shut.

“Are you awake, dear?”

The voice was _so loud_.Darcy groaned and shifted away from it.That beeping seemed louder now, and she could hear sharp noises and _clanks_ and more, a constant barrage of sound.

Darcy tried to speak, but her voice came out as a dull croak.

“Your friend will want to know,” that voice continued, seemingly ignorant to Darcy’s plight.“I’ll tell her you’re awake at last.”

Darcy felt her breath hitch as she struggled to breathe.She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know—

“Darcy!”

That voice was familiar and even louder—louder than Darcy thought possible.All at once something hit Darcy’s skin and she _screamed_.The touch burned, it hurt, it hurt so badly—

“What’s happening?” the familiar voice asked.This one had the sense to be quieter, at least.“Nurse!”

Darcy heard scuffling, and there were more people around her.“Please step away,” the first voice—the nurse, Darcy thought blearily—said.

“She’s in _pain_ ,” the familiar one said.

Darcy felt something in one arm—as if she could feel something flooding her veins.She fought it until she went back under, where it was blissful, dark and cold.

* * *

When Darcy awoke for the second time, she was met with darkness.  There was a weight across her legs.  She couldn’t feel one of her feet.

The room came slowly into view.Darcy lay in a hospital bed in a small room, hooked up to several monitors.She could see two windows, covered by gauzy curtains.Beyond them, Darcy could make out nothing, except that it had to be night.The pinching she’d felt in her arm turned out to be an IV, though the attached bag of fluids looked mostly empty.

Darcy herself felt as if she’d been hit by a freight train.Her lungs ached as if she’d been under water, and her arms felt like jelly.Her mouth was dry and her eyes were crusted with sleep.

As she shifted, the weight on her legs did, too.

“Jane?” Darcy asked.Her voice came out as a croak.

The weight on Darcy’s legs shot up.Jane flailed for a moment, then caught sight of Darcy.

She lunged off of Darcy’s legs and wrapped her in a bruising hug, then immediately pulled back.

“I’m sorry— The said that you’d be feeling less pain but—”

Darcy vaguely remembered her earlier sensitivity.It didn’t seem to be a problem now, so Darcy pulled Jane back down for another hug.

“What’s going on?” Darcy asked.

Jane got Darcy a glass of water in lieu of an answer.

“I’m just glad they took the breathing tube out, it was…”Jane swallowed.“I’m glad you’re awake.”

“Jane,” Darcy said seriously, “what happened?”

* * *

Jane explained in fits and starts.  The more Darcy heard, the less she wanted to know, but she forced herself to continue listening.

“You wouldn’t wake up,” Jane said.“Three days after Thor… After he left.I tried to wake you, but nothing worked.I panicked—Erik and I took you to the hospital.SHIELD stepped in and brought you to a private facility.”

“That why you’re allowed here after-hours?” Darcy joked.She took one look at the dark circles under Jane’s eyes and regretted it.

“They wanted me to leave,” Jane admitted.“They said there was something in Norway they wanted me to consult on.I told them I wouldn’t leave without you, and you couldn’t be moved.”

“Jane,” Darcy chastised.She couldn’t quite verbalize what she meant.

Jane just shook her head in response.“I couldn’t leave you here alone,” she said.“I couldn’t.”She swallowed and looked away.“When they didn’t fight me on it,” she continued, “I figured the consultation was just to get me out of the way.”

“Why?” Darcy asked.Her voice cracked, and Jane was quick to get her more water.

“I don’t know,” Jane admitted.“I asked Erik, or tried to.He’s been brought in to consult with SHIELD full-time.He says it’s classified.”

“That’s good,” Darcy said.She kept her tone neutral.For all that Jane had told her, there was something she was keeping in.“Jane, is there something—”

“They didn’t want me to tell you,” Jane said.She took in a deep breath even as Darcy fell silent.As the pause stretched, Darcy felt herself getting impatient.

“Didn’t want to tell me what?” she asked.“Jane, what doesn’t SHIELD want me to know?”

Jane bit her lip.“It’s about your soulmate.We know who he was.”

Darcy sat up a little straighter.“Who?” she asked.Then: “ _Was?_ ”

Jane bit her bottom lip.She wouldn’t look Darcy in the eye.

“Your soulmark disappeared about a month ago,” she said.

“ _A month_ ,” Darcy repeated.The disappearance of her soulmark should have scared her more than it did, but if it had been a month, then… “How long have I been…?”

Jane smiled tiredly.“Happy New Year,” she said.

* * *

A year.

 _Almost a full year_.

Darcy’s response to the news—fear, so much fear—brought a nurse who’d noticed the spike in her heart rate.Darcy hyperventilated, trying to get in oxygen but only succeeding in making herself dizzy. _A year_.She’d gone down in New Mexico, and she’d been…

Jane had stayed with her for a year.Darcy cried.

* * *

When Darcy finally came back down, her first goal was to get Jane back in the room with her.  The nurse had sent her away, but Darcy had questions that needed answering.

It took some convincing, but Jane was eventually brought back before Darcy.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

Darcy didn’t let Jane finish: “It’s fine,” she said.“I mean, it’s not fine, but you’re here and— _a year_?Jane, you haven’t been…”

“I couldn’t leave you,” Jane said, and that was that.

* * *

“You said you knew who my soulmate—was,” Darcy said.  She and Jane spoke, the conversations dying and picking up at erratic rates.  They both knew what it meant, to have a soulmark disappear.  Darcy’s soulmate was dead.

“Yes,” Jane said.“Listen, I— I don’t think I should tell you.”

Darcy swallowed.“That bad, huh?” she asked.She already knew the answer to that question, but if Jane knew something else, it was probably even worse than she’d figured.“I won’t— I can’t promise I won’t panic, but…”

“It’s just,” Jane said, “I don’t know how to…” She closed her eyes, as if steeling herself.“I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?”

Jane smiled.Darcy knew the gesture to be unconscious; Jane was supremely uncomfortable.

“I promised Thor,” Jane said, “that I’d wait until he got here.”

“Thor’s back?” Darcy latched onto that rather than consider the ramifications of Thor’s involvement.

Jane’s smile, now genuine, grew.“Yeah,” she said.“He’s visited you, too, you know.He helped me pick out flowers, early on.”

Darcy looked around the room.There were no flowers in sight, but— She swallowed.She’d been down for a year.They probably hadn’t thought that she’d wake back up.

“Well, I fully expect Thor-approved flowers now that I can see them,” Darcy said, trying again for jocularity.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Jane said, her tone forced.“I’ll tell him when he comes back.”

When she didn’t speak again, Darcy said, “Does Thor know—did he know—my soulmate?”

Jane took in a deep breath.“How much do you remember about New Mexico?”

* * *

Darcy told her everything—right until the moment that she realized, completely and entirely, that her soulmate was responsible for the destruction.

Hearing it from Darcy’s lips seemed to ease Jane’s fears somewhat.

“I— That’s— I’m sorry,” Jane said.“I mean, Thor told me, he said you’d probably figured it out by the end, but…”

“Jane,” Darcy said, “who were they?”Jane hesitated.“Tell me,” Darcy pressed.”

“Thor’s brother,” Jane said finally.“Loki.”

“His— _What_.”

Jane looked away.“When Thor got back to Asgard, they fought, and— Loki jumped off the Bifrost.”

Darcy couldn’t remember for the life of her what a Bifrost was, but she figured it couldn’t be good.

“He died, then,” Darcy said.“I felt him die.”

“No,” Jane amended, “he didn’t die right away.He died when your soulmark disappeared, about a month later.Thor said something about drifting through space, but without oxygen—”

“But he’s dead,” Darcy said.“He can’t do that sort of—damage—anywhere else.”

“Yes,” Jane said quietly, “Loki is dead.”

* * *

It took a few more days before Darcy was cleared for release from the long-term care facility that SHIELD had chosen.  The doctors wanted to run all manner of blood tests, amongst other things.  They spoke to her, explained everything, but Darcy couldn’t help but resent them.  They’d seen her lying there for nearly a year, catatonic and unmoving.  They knew that her soulmate— _Loki_ —had died—they probably knew what he’d done.  They were probably relieved.

Darcy knew she should have been relieved.She tried to be.What had happened in New Mexico had been horrific.

Still, she couldn’t entirely ignore how _hollow_ she felt, as if something inside her had been scooped out, removed and discarded, leaving nothing but a flimsy shell.Her foot was devoid of marks, and she felt alone even amongst others.

(She didn’t think about the prophecy her roommate had given her early on.She’d all but forgotten about it, and it didn’t matter because Loki was dead.)

They day she got out, Darcy made Jane take her to get a milkshake and French fries, and if she cried again, just a little, they were in a back booth where no one could see them.

* * *

Loki was not dead.  He could see them, stashed away in that corner.  _Darcy_ and _Jane_.

 _Darcy_.

Thanos had spoken her name, and though Loki burned with the desire to tear the Mad Titan apart piece by piece for daring to utter it, he know knew her name as well—no, better—than he knew his own.

 _Darcy Lewis_.His soulmate.He’d hurt her tremendously.He trembled, wordless, at the thought.

He decidedly did not think of the blank space on his foot where her name once resided, before Thanos ripped it apart as he had so many other things.

Thanos could not see Loki here because he was not; he could spy on Darcy through his powers and the sceptre Thanos had begrudgingly granted him.The Titan didn’t know what Loki was planning, what all it would entail for the future of the galaxy.

Truth be told, Loki was still a little hazy on the details himself, but he wouldn’t admit that to a soul, not on pain of torture.

The thing was, she—Darcy—she _knew_.She knew what he’d done.He’d seen the hatred and the fear and the complete and utter revulsion in her eyes in that place—New Mexico, whatever that meant.He fancied that he’d let go because he’d lost faith that she could want him back.

(That wasn’t why he’d done it, but he was selfish enough to think so, to want to blame anyone but himself.)

But the plan, the plan.She wouldn’t like it, Loki knew.She seemed to dislike violence.(Understatement, he understood.Still.)She would have to be kept away from it.He needed to be seen to carry out Thanos’ plan—attack Midgard, conquer, the rest—but he’d need to turn the tides in his favor somewhere along the line.Only then could he supplant Thanos and take his rightful place as Lord of the Universe.

(Lord?King?Emperor, Loki thought distantly.Darcy would be the Empress.He could already see her in a crown.)

But for now, he would content himself with seeing her alive and breathing on her own, even if she did cry for the time that she’d lost.It would be no matter.Loki would make sure she lived long and well, happy and whole.Soulmark or not, Loki had determined that she was the one for him, and nothing in the galaxy was going to stop him.Not this time.

* * *

Loki came through the Tessaract, appearing in a SHIELD bunker.  He turned Barton and Selvig using the sceptre, and made off with the Tessaract.  From there he went to Germany, made a display, and got himself caught.

Everything was going to plan until Thor arrived.

* * *

Darcy had moved in with Jane in the interim, until she figured out what she was going to do.  Her degree at Culver had been suspended—SHIELD had informed the university that she was comatose and not expected to awaken, but her credits and records had been maintained anyway just in case—and her life was in complete shambles.  Darcy didn’t know what she would have done had her parents still been alive, but she imagined it would have been even harder.

Living with Jane wasn’t so bad.In many ways, Darcy’s life picked up exactly where it had left off—doing science, herding a wayward scientist, and trying to make sure they both managed at least two meals a day.It wasn’t easy, but it was comforting because it was routine.She needed all of the comfort she could get nowadays.

Of course, Jane could never be bothered to answer her phone, so Darcy just took to carrying them both with her.As such, when Jane got the call, Darcy was the one to pick up.

“Hello?” Darcy asked.

“Dr. Foster,” a voice on the other end said.Darcy faintly recognized it.

“Darcy Lewis speaking, Dr. Foster’s busy at the moment,” Darcy said.“Can I take a message?”

“Miss Lewis?” the voice asked.“Are you safe?”

“Excuse me?” Darcy asked.“Who is this?”

“This is Agent Coulson, from SHIELD,” the man—Coulson—said.“We need you and Dr. Foster to come in right now.”

“Coulson— Wait, you stole my iPod!And Jane’s research!”

Jane found Darcy at that moment.“Darcy, who is it?”

“Please put Dr. Foster on the line, now,” Coulson ordered.

Darcy handed the phone over.“It’s someone from SHIELD.Says we need to come in now, whatever that means.”

Darcy heard Coulson talking to Jane but couldn’t make out any of the words.Still, she noticed when Jane went pale, and found herself getting nervous by proxy.

“All right,” Jane said.She hung up.

“What gives?” Darcy asked.

“We need to go,” Jane said.She crossed the room, no doubt searching for her keys.“We need to go.”

“Jane?”

“He’s alive.”

“What?”

“Loki,” Jane said.“He’s _here_.”Darcy looked around, half expecting to find a carbon copy of Thor lurking in the shadows.“No, I mean— He’s on Earth.He attacked a SHIELD facility and has been taken into custody.Something about Germany.We need to leave.”

* * *

As it turned out, Jane didn’t need to find her keys.  SHIELD arrived within a few minutes of Coulson’s call.  Darcy and Jane didn’t have time to pack much more than a single change of clothes before they were ushered into the back of a van and driven to a shuttle.

“Where are we going?” Jane tried to ask.No one would answer any questions, but it soon became clear that _up_ was a good an answer as any.Darcy crowded the window as they flew through the air, watching the ground fall away.

They landed on the surface of what appeared to be nothing, but which clearly became _something_ when the cloaks went down.

“Oh my God,” Darcy said, staring openmouthed at the enormous—ship? Spacecraft?—that SHIELD had brought them to.The shuttle docked inside the ship, the ceiling closing and resealing over them.The shuttle doors opened with the space had refilled with oxygen, and Jane and Darcy gratefully climbed out.

A man with an eyepatch stood not twenty feet from the shuttle ramp.

“Dr. Foster, Miss Lewis,” he said, “welcome aboard our helicarrier.”

“Uh, who are you?” Darcy asked.

“What’s going on?” Jane demanded.“They told us that Loki was—”

“SHIELD needs you both to be kept safe,” the man said, “and that’s exactly what’s happening.This is Agent Hill.”He gestured to a woman rapidly approaching from across the landing pad.“She will escort you to your quarters.This is for your own protection.”

* * *

Hill turned out to be a severe woman, all told.  Darcy tried to ask what was going on several times, but Hill wouldn’t respond.

When she did, she came to a full stop and snapped, “If I were you, I wouldn’t be mouthing off.Anyone who’s soulmate to a murderer shouldn’t be in protective custody at all.You should consider yourself lucky.”Darcy felt herself go pale, shrinking on herself.

“Excuse me?” Jane shot back, coming to Darcy’s side.Thankfully, Darcy thought, the hallway was empty.“How dare you?Darcy didn’t _ask_ for this, and for your information, he’s not her soulmate.The mark disappeared.”

“As far as we can tell, that doesn’t mean anything,” Hill said dismissively, “and while I understand that this isn’t a choice, you have no business being here.Don’t ask questions and come quietly, _now_.”

“Hold.”

Darcy’s head shot up.She hadn’t even realized that she’d started staring intently at the floor as if it had held all the answers until she heard—

“Thor!” Jane called.The demigod swept toward them from one end of the hallway, cloak billowing behind him.Darcy had never been so happy to see him in her life.“What’s happening?I thought he was…”

“Agent, you will escort us to Fury,” Thor ordered.

“I will do nothing of the sort,” Hill snapped.

“They should not be here,” Thor said, gesturing at Darcy and Jane.

“Hey,” Darcy said, “you could at least say hi first.”

Thor looked at her, his expression softening.“Lady Darcy, Jane,” he said, nodding to each of them in turn, “I apologize for my abruptness, but it cannot be helped.We must see you safely off of this vessel.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Hill said.

Thor seemed to get slightly taller.“We will speak with Fury, immediately,” he demanded.

Hill sighed.“Fine.He can fight with you,” she said.“This way.”

* * *

Hill led them through a labyrinth of corridors and hallways.  Darcy could have sworn that they were going in circles until they suddenly arrived at what looked like the hub of the ship—there were multitudes of computer terminals, what looked like a round table for developing strategies, and a full view of the sky before the helicarrier.

“Director Fury,” Hill said.“Thor would like a word.”

The man with the eyepatch who had greeted Darcy and Jane as they boarded the helicarrier in the first place approached.Darcy assumed this to be Director Fury.

“You’ve gone too far,” Thor said, getting up in his face.

Fury looked unimpressed.“I told you I’d keep them safe,” he said.“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.”

“You’re baiting him,” Thor said.

“Baiting who?” Jane cut in.“Whatever this is about, we have a right to know.”

“Yeah,” Darcy said, feeling like the fourth wheel in a conversation she was 90% sure she had no role in.

“My brother is aboard this ship,” Thor said, looking at Darcy.He turned to Fury.“You’re using her as bait, and it isn’t going to work.I will not allow you to use my sister in such a way, and had I known that you would stoop so low—”

“Have you seen what he’s capable of?” Fury demanded.“I’m using the only tactic I believe will work.”

“Whatever Loki plans,” Thor said, “whatever goes on in his mind, you will not be able to outmatch him.”

Fury tilted his head ever so slightly, straightening up.“Are you threatening me on his behalf?” he questioned.

Thor glared at him.“No,” he said, “but I can guarantee that if he is still in his cell, it is because he wants to be here.Bringing Darcy and Jane aboard has only put them in further jeopardy.I demand they be permitted to leave at once.”

Fury blinked his one eye at Thor, then turned to Darcy.

“Miss Lewis,” he said, “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“I think I’d rather pass that and leave,” she said.

Fury shook his head.“Your soulmate—”

“He’s not my soulmate,” Darcy cut in.“The mark’s gone.”

Fury shot a look at Thor.“That being said,” he conceded, “I don’t think Loki would agree with you.”Fury looked back to Darcy.“We would like you to speak to him.He may be amenable to surrender if he sees you.”

Darcy couldn’t help it: she laughed.“You’re joking.”

“Darcy’s not talking to anyone,” Jane said.She looped one arm over Darcy’s shoulders and glanced at Thor, who nodded.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Fury ordered, “unless it’s to see that man.”

“No,” Darcy said.“I refuse.”

Fury attempted to level her with a glare.Darcy glared right back.

“Do you know how many people he killed in Stuttgart yesterday?” Fury asked.“Or when he appeared in one of our facilities?Do you know what he’s done to Dr. Selvig, to one of my finest?”Darcy didn’t respond.“This man is dangerous.We have to use everything we have to get him to tell us where the Tessaract is and exactly what he’s planning on doing with it.”

“Tessaract?” Jane asked.

“I’m not doing it,” Darcy insisted.She looked to Thor, who nodded minutely.She was doing the right thing if she had his stamp of approval, at least for the moment.

Fury sighed and turned away.

* * *

From the relative confinement of the box meant to be used as containment for the Hulk, Loki could not hear what was taking place on deck, but he could sense the presence of the new arrivals.

 _Darcy was on board_.

He frowned to himself, knowing that whatever cameras were watching him would not know why.That complicated things.Everyone on board was supposed to die.He would have to move quickly—faster than he’d already intended—to grab her and get out before the ship went down.

No matter.He would save her, and her scientist friend—Thor’s consort, Loki thought with a snarl—though it burned him to save anything precious to Thor.

 _Darcy was precious to Thor, too.He’d looked at Loki with the same degree of kindness once upon a time_.

Loki felt the beginnings of a splitting headache coming on, the likes of which had become common since his “care” at the hands of Thanos and the Chitauri.They were peering into his mind, even now.

He flinched at the intrusion, but it was gone as fast as it came.They knew what he was considering—at least with regards to Darcy.

Loki had to think quickly.Barton’s attack was scheduled to occur very, very soon.

* * *

The first explosions that rocked the helicarrier caught Darcy completely off-guard.  Thor had been escorting them to the hangar—he was dead-set and determined to get them away from Loki, even if it meant piloting one of the craft himself and leaving without SHIELD’s permission—but everything changed in a heartbeat.

“Loki,” Thor murmured.They had just reached the doors to the hangar.He glanced at Darcy and Jane.“Stay here.”

“But—” Jane called, but Thor was already off, running through the corridors.There was another tremor, and the ground began to tilt.

Darcy sucked in a deep breath as Jane latched onto one of her arms.

“Oh my God,” Darcy said.People were yelling over intercom—something about the Hulk, something else about the attack, then something about the turbines?—and she was very sure they were all seconds away from dying.

“There’s nowhere to go,” Darcy added.

Jane squeezed her hand harder.“Whatever happens, we stick together,” Jane said.Darcy heard the unspoken _don’t leave me_. She nodded quickly.

“Teamwork,” she said, huddling in place.

* * *

Loki goaded Thor into opening the doors, then pulled his trick.  Only when Thor was safely locked inside did he begin in earnest.

“Where is she?” Loki snarled.

“She will not speak to you,” Thor said through the glass, hitting it with one fist.“She believes you a monster.”

“What did you tell her?” Loki questioned.

“She has judged you on your actions,” Thor said.He looked sad as he said so much.“Brother, _come home_.If you repent and stop this madness—”

“Stop?” Loki asked.“I cannot stop.There is nothing but pain and death if I desist.”

“Pain and death?” Thor asked, almost laughing in hysteria.“Is that not the very definition of war?”

Loki couldn’t restrain a low chuckle.“That’s rich, coming from someone who courted war all his life.You know nothing of peace.”

“I know more than you,” Thor rasped.“Lady Darcy will not consent to this madness.”

Loki knew it to be true, but damned if he would admit as much.

“The humans think us immortal,” he said, eyeing the console that promised to send Thor plummeting to his doom.He thought of how sad Darcy would be to hear of Thor’s death.He simultaneously felt pained and angered, and he hit the button out of spite.“You shall not live to see her reaction.”

* * *

There was a squadron coming down the hallway.  Darcy and Jane were hiding, but it was apparent that the ship was going down.  They held onto each other for dear life.

“Miss Lewis?” one of the soldiers asked.“We’re here to get you out, are you here?”

“Oh thank God,” Darcy said.Jane grabbed her sleeve.“What?”

“What if it’s a trap?” Jane asked.“If it’s Loki—”

“Of course it is,” came a rich voice.Darcy saw Jane’s eyes widen in fear before her world went dark.

* * *

Darcy awoke to bright lights and the sound of crashing waves.  Funny, she didn’t remember coming to the beach.  She didn’t remember driving Jane’s rickety van across the coast—

Jane.Thor. _Loki_.

Darcy shot up, and she immediately felt a pounding in her head for her efforts.She was in an unfamiliar living room with enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto a veranda and then the New York City skyline.

Darcy felt her blood freeze in her veins. _There were things flying through the air_.Not airplanes or the like; they looked like scooters.She didn’t hear waves, she heard engines, and lots of them.

Darcy came to stand by the windows.The things seemed to be sweeping out of the sky from somewhere above whatever building she was in; she couldn’t see exactly where.As she looked down to survey the streets, she immediately stepped away from the windows.There was a person-sized hole not far from her, and below, there was absolute carnage.People were running from—things?Darcy didn’t know how to classify whatever it was that was running and flying around the city—and everything looked a right disaster.

“My apologies.I’d hoped you would sleep longer and not have to see such a terrible sight.”

Darcy whipped around.A man, tall and thin wearing predominately black and green, stood not far from her.Her eyes were immediately drawn to his helmet—enormous horns curled up and away from his face.It looked heavy.He looked dangerous.

“Who the hell are you?” Darcy asked.She took a step away as he came closer.She angled herself so that she wouldn’t back up against the windows, but if he persisted, there was only so long they could go in circles.He was substantially bigger than her, and she rather doubted she could outrun him.

“You haven’t guessed?” he asked.He had no right to have such an attractive voice.He looked perfectly crazy.“I am Loki, of Asgard.”

 _Loki_.Darcy felt like she had to lie down, but she forced herself to keep moving away.

“Bullshit,” she said.“Loki is Thor’s brother.”

“I am,” Loki said, anger flitting across his face, “ _not_ related to that moronic oaf.”

It was Darcy’s turn to get angry.“Then you’re not Loki, are you?”

In the time it took Darcy to blink, Loki was standing beside her, one of her wrists held firmly in one hand.

“You had runes,” he rasped, speaking directly into her ear, “on your foot.They said my name, though you didn’t know it as such.You were there when I sent my Destroyer—you knew it to be my work.You felt it when I fell.You felt…” Loki trailed off.“You felt my pain.”

Darcy wrenched herself from his grip and did the first thing that came to mind: she slapped Loki full across the face.

“How dare you,” she said.She felt herself fill to the brim with rage.“How dare you touch me, how dare you _speak_ — Did you do this?” she asked, gesturing outside.

“I intend to conquer this world, and many others besides,” Loki said, squinting at her.He didn’t even flinch when she hit him, nor did he seem to have been at all hurt.Darcy couldn’t say the same for her hand.“I had hoped that you would consent to rule by my side.”

“That I would— You’re crazy,” Darcy said.Laughter bubbled up and escaped her lips.“You’re absolutely… Oh my God.Oh my God.”

“Charming, but not precisely true,” Loki said.

It took Darcy a few moments to understand, but when she did, she wrinkled her nose in distaste.Loki was approaching her quite slowly again, and Darcy took an shaky step back.Her leg hit something and she fell backwards.Rather than the ground, Darcy hit something soft and springy—the very couch that she’d woken up on.She’d gone in a complete circle.

“Darcy,” he said, “Darcy, Darcy.”

“Stop that,” she said.

He sighed and came to stand before her.She had to crane her head to see him, he was so tall.She scooted as far from him as she could, which was all of no distance at all.

“I intend you no harm,” he said.“Nor will I, nor have I ever.”

“I was in a coma for a year because of you,” Darcy found herself saying.“You nearly killed me before that.”

Loki shook his head and came to crouch before her.“The Destroyer had explicit instructions not to harm you,” he said, “and the aftermath… I can assure you, I intended for none of the pain that befell you.My…new allies…did not immediately welcome me.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel bad for you, it’s not going to work.People are dying out there, right now.”

“I know,” Loki said.“Needs must.”

Darcy made to slap him again.This time, he caught her wrist.

“Careful, Darcy,” he said, “that you don’t overstep the boundaries of my kindness.”

“Your kindness?” she asked.“That’s rich.All right, Mr. Kindness, where’s Jane?”

“Dr. Foster is being kept safe,” Loki said dismissively, as if the matter were of no import.To him, that was likely the case.“I understand that you are fond of her.I have seen to it that she remains well.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You don’t need an answer.”

Darcy made to pull her hand back, but Loki held it fast.

“You’re afraid,” he said, holding her wrist.

“Let go.”

“You’re pulse races so fast,” he murmured.“It’s a shame that it’s fear and not desire.”

Darcy tried to hit him with her other hand, but he caught that one, too.

“Oh, Darcy,” he said.“Violence will get you nowhere.”

“You’re one to talk.Look outside, or maybe say that to a mirror. _Let me go_.”

“As you wish,” Loki said, releasing her wrists.Darcy rubbed them, though truth be told he hadn’t gripped them all that tightly.It was as if he were being _careful_ with her.

She remembered what Fury had said, about using her to draw Loki out, and looked at him with renewed interest.

“What do you get out of this?” Darcy asked.

“The throne,” Loki answered almost immediately.It was a practiced response if she’d ever heard one.

Darcy shook her head, though she knew he wasn’t looking.“There is no throne,” she said.

“I’ll make one, then.”

“That’s not why you’re doing this.”

Loki scowled.Though he hadn’t been looking at her, he now turned fully away.While his back was turned, Darcy began looking for something— _anything_ at all really that could help.

As it turned out, her best escape route came crashing through the front windows mere moments later.The moment Darcy saw the green blob fast approaching— _the Hulk_ —Darcy was off the couch and running.

As soon as she hit the elevator she realized her mistake.There was no telling who or what occupied the rest of the building.She knew she was up high; Loki probably had people—or whatever—swarming the rest of it.

She turned in time to see Loki confront the Hulk.It didn’t last long, and by the end, Loki didn’t look like he was getting up.

The Hulk looked at Darcy.Darcy tried to shrink back against the wall, but the thing was coming toward her.

“H-hey,” Darcy started.There was nowhere for her to run.Her blood pounded in her ears.“I’m not… I’m one of the good guys. _Please don’t hurt me_.”

The Hulk stopped short and stared at Darcy.

“Watch puny God,” the Hulk said.It pointed at Loki.

“You want me to watch Loki,” Darcy said.The Hulk gave her a shove in that direction.“Right, babysitting the down-and-out god,” she said.

The Hulk snorted, then took off running.It jumped from the building and back into the fray.Darcy watched it for a moment then looked down at Loki.His eyes were wide, pupils full-blown.There were myriad lesions and wounds that she could see, and there were bruises developing all over.Darcy would have been lying if she’d said she didn’t have just a pang of sympathy.

Something outside caught her attention, though.There was a red-headed woman on the balcony picking up—a staff?

Darcy approached her, only for her to brandish the staff in her direction.

“Woah,” Darcy said, “I don’t know who you are but I’m like 95% sure we’re on the same side.”

“You don’t look like a Chitauri,” the woman said.

“Come again?” Darcy asked.

“Who are you?You should take shelter; it’s a war zone out here.”

“I’m Darcy Lewis.”That got the woman’s attention.Darcy eyed her skintight jumpsuit.“Are you with SHIELD?”

“Agent Romanoff,” she said.“I think this sceptre can close the portal Loki opened.”

“Portal?”

Romanoff gestured at the sky, and Darcy saw it: an enormous beam issued from the top of the building.It ended in a black hole from which streams of beings—and whale-like things—emerged at regular intervals.

“Right, portal,” Darcy said.“How can I help?”

Romanoff gave her an odd look.“I’m headed to the roof to try to shut this thing down.I want you to take this and this,” she said, handing Darcy a gun and a small device—a smartpad, “and come up with me.”

“Right,” Darcy said, holding the two objects.Romanoff headed toward the elevators, and Darcy followed.“What exactly am I doing?”

“Get ready to fire at anything that moves,” Romanoff instructed.“Safety’s already off.Guns up.”

“Right,” Darcy said. _Right_.She risked one glance at where Loki still lay on the floor before the elevator doors closed.She rather wished she’d stuck with the Hulk’s orders.

* * *

Loki couldn’t move.  He could barely breathe.  He registered Darcy leaving only distantly, and then the only thing he could bring himself to feel was regret.  He’d bungled the entire thing. 

Well, not _everything_.Technically, everything was still going according to plan.Darcy’s rejection had stung, though, even if he’d expected it.What he hadn’t planned on was being immobilized for the foreseeable future.He made a note: _do not anger the Hulk_.

Able to do little else, Loki concentrated on Darcy.He could sense her—she was going up with the Widow, likely trying to close the portal.He sensed her fear and wished he could claim that anyone else had put it there.

* * *

 _There were aliens on the roof_.

Darcy fired when Romanoff did, and even though she missed, it was immensely gratifying (and not a little terrifying) to watch them each drop.

“Wait, Erik?”

Darcy took a step forward, now sure that the figure crouching in front of the small glowing blue _thing_ was Erik.Romanoff stopped her with a hand on her shoulder and approached.There was a tousle and the building was shaking, and then Erik was down.Darcy watched as he hit his head pretty hard.

When he looked at her again, his eyes were—

 _Wait_.His eyes had been blue just seconds ago.She hadn’t looked too closely at Erik’s eyes in the past, but she felt she would have noticed if they had been such a vibrant blue.

Darcy came to kneel next to him.He was muttering something about aliens, the Tessaract (whatever that was), the sceptre (Darcy guessed that was what Romanoff was holding) and a bunch of other things she didn’t understand.

The gist of it, though, sunk in with chilling clarity: _mind control_.Loki had taken people and warped their minds to his will.Darcy thought she was going to be sick.It was bad enough that he’d killed, but he’d…

“How do we shut it off?” Darcy asked, waving at the sky.She immediately regretted speaking; not only was Romanoff looking at her strangely, but talking meant opening her mouth, and opening her mouth meant she was one step closer to being sick.

“I think I built in a failsafe,” Erik said.He looked pointedly at the sceptre in Romanoff’s hands.

Romanoff nodded shortly and approached the glowing blue thing.All at once, she stopped.She seemed to be listening to something.Darcy recognized belatedly that she had a comm link somewhere.All at once, Romanoff said something in a language Darcy didn’t understand, though she intuited enough to know it to be a curse.

“Hurry!” Erik implored.“The longer it remains open—”

“We’ve got another problem,” Romanoff said.“Warhead, coming at us.”

“Warhead?” Darcy asked.She felt bile rising in the back of her throat and swallowed, making a face.Her hands were shaking.“Warhead?”

Romanoff didn’t look at her, nor did she answer.“Stark, I can’t keep this thing open for too much longer.”

Darcy looked to the sky.There was something small— _Iron Man_ , god, when had her life become this?—flying toward the portal.In moments, he had disappeared through the small hole in the clouds, vanishing from sight.

Romanoff took the sceptre to the glowing cube.

“Wait!” Darcy said.“He’s not—”

There was a shockwave, and it took the words right out of her mouth.Romanoff held steady, but Erik crouched against the ground, groaning as if pained.

The portal began collapsing.

Darcy returned her attention to the sky.She’d never met Tony Stark, but she knew that if he didn’t come out soon, she never would.

As a tiny object began falling from the sky, just moments after the portal disappeared from sight, Darcy realized, with a sinking feeling, that coming out of the portal wasn’t the problem: it was surviving the fall.

“He’s not slowing down,” Romanoff said.There was an edge to her voice, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying.Then: “ _He’s not slowing down_.”

* * *

Time passed in agony for Loki.  He felt Darcy’s emotions as his own—pain, fear—no, _terror_ —then a crippling blankness.  He told himself that he would have known if she had died.  Soulmark or no, he could still feel her, _sense her_ , through his magic, even if she couldn’t do the same to him.  She wasn’t dead.

If she died, Loki was going to set the world aflame and throw himself upon the embers.

He refused to consider it.Gingerly he pulled himself toward a set of low stairs, trying to get upright.He stopped when he heard the stretch of string behind him.

He’d been so focused on Darcy’s emotions, he hadn’t been paying attention to the world around him.When he turned, there they were—the Avengers, they called themselves.Barton had an arrow knocked and ready to fire into one of his eyes.Darcy was not with them.

“If it’s all the same to you,” he said, just as something like _relief_ blossomed in his chest, “I’ll have that drink now.”

* * *

Using the pad that Romanoff had given her, Darcy checked every room of Stark Tower.  There were access records for when each area had been locked—under Loki’s override, of course—and Jane had to be in one of them.

Darcy found her in the twelfth room she checked, huddled in a corner.When Darcy opened the door, Jane lunged at her with what looked like a ruler as if she intended to stab someone.

“Woah,” Darcy said, taking a step back.“Jane, it’s me.”

“Darcy?” Jane dropped the ruler, staring at her.“ _Darcy_.”Jane lunged at her again, this time to wrap her in a bruising hug.Darcy hugged back as hard as she could.“You found me.”

“I couldn’t leave you,” Darcy said.She held Jane close, remembering the hospital.Jane would want to know everything, just like she had.

Quietly, Darcy told her everything—about the battle outside, about Erik, about the hole in the sky.

“You’re more than your soulmate,” Jane whispered.“This isn’t your fault.”

Darcy felt herself grip Jane harder.Her face was wet—she hadn’t realized that she had begun to cry.

 _This isn’t your fault_.

Darcy wanted to say _of course it isn’t_ , but she found she couldn’t.Jane had read her mind before she’d even come to the conclusion herself.

“Thank you,” she whispered into Jane’s hair.“Thank you.”

* * *

It was Thor who found them, still huddling in that storeroom, two dead aliens propped against the door like signposts.  Darcy supposed they had been sentries, meant to guard Jane like Loki had promised, but she didn’t want to think too hard about that.

“It’s time,” Thor said.He pulled them both close.“Let us leave this place.”

* * *

They had shawarma with the Avengers, which was surreal.  If Jane hadn’t been next to her, and if Thor hadn’t been on Jane’s other side, Darcy would have put it down as the oddest dream she’d ever had.

That, and the fact that Loki was currently trapped under Mjolnir out in the lobby.She could almost feel him on the edges of her consciousness, just like she used to.His presence seemed muted and abnormal.Like so much else, Darcy tried to ignore him.She ate vociferously instead.

“Girl’s got an appetite,” someone—Barton, that was his name, Clint Barton—said.

Romanoff patted her on the back.“Slow down, you’ll make yourself sick,” she murmured.

“Who’s the wildly attractive company?” Stark asked from across the table.

“This is Dr. Jane Foster,” Thor said, wrapping a possessive arm around her.Jane smiled brightly.“And this,” he continued, “is Lady Darcy, my sister.”

Several mouths dropped open all at once.

* * *

“My apologies,” Thor said.  They walked through a park in DC.  Loki, muzzled and chained, walked behind them.  Soon, they would leave for Asgard, but Thor had wanted a word with Darcy alone.  He and Jane had already said their good-byes, at least for the time being.  “If I had known—”

“It’s fine,” Darcy said, waving a hand as if to dispel how _not fine_ everything had been so far.“Really.”

“I meant it,” Thor said.He glanced at Loki, who had the grace not to look back.Whenever Darcy looked away from him, though, she felt his eyes on her back.She wondered what he saw.She assumed he was disappointed that she was mortal, or at least angry that she’d helped stop him.She didn’t know how to feel.“Though the soulmark is gone, you and he were once linked.That makes you family, Darcy, and I will not forget it.”

Darcy smiled and fought the urge to stare at her shoes.Instead, she hugged Thor.While she squeezed as hard as she could, Thor held her gently, afraid to break her.When they pulled away, Darcy took a few extra steps back.

“I will return for you and Jane,” Thor promised.“Asgard is not safe for you now, while the realms war with one another as a result of what has happened here, but I promise you shall visit the realm eternal.My home is yours.”

They were coming up on a stone circle.The Avengers were waiting.Darcy didn’t know what to say.“Take care,” she said.


	3. The End

Another year passed.Darcy briefly went back to Culver.She took three classes, wrote a thesis in a month, and graduated with honors.Jane came to the ceremony and clapped and hollered as loud as a one-woman cheer-section can be.

The very next day, Jane got her set up as her full-time assistant.Since SHIELD was funding her research, she could officially take some of that money and use it to pay Darcy.Also courtesy of SHIELD, they had a lab in Stark Tower and access to several others across the globe.Jane’s research took the world by storm in the months following the incident in New York City, and she was wanted everywhere—universities, press conferences, lecture halls, you name it.Darcy took it upon herself to plan everything.She decided who Jane met with and where, and who could get access to those meetings.In her mind, she was putting her degree to good use, but to Jane, she was just doing her a massive favor.

Truth be told, Darcy found that there were several upshots of being Jane’s life assistant.After all, Darcy got to meet her share of wayward scientists—Betty Ross, the noted cellular biologist; Helen Cho, a pioneer in tissue regeneration and biomedical research; and Hope van Dyne over at Pym Tech.Stark called her regularly, sometimes looking for Jane but other times not.Darcy travelled to more countries than she could have ever dreamed, doing science and working hard.She couldn’t have been happier.

Naturally, though, all good things come to an end.

They were in London, where some of Jane’s equipment (even after all this time, Darcy knew the names of some but not all of the pieces) had picked up strange readings.Erik had accompanied them, but had bowed out not two days after arriving.

“I had a god in my head, Jane,” he said before leaving for the airport to catch a flight home.“I can’t seem to shake the aftershocks.”

Jane traced the signal to an abandoned building.There were kids playing with what looked like an infinite loop in time—you threw the shoe over the edge, it came back falling from the ceiling—but Jane was looking for the source.

Darcy lost sight of her.She was gone for an hour.Only fifteen minutes in, Darcy felt a sharp, stinging feeling on the edges of her consciousness, followed by an excruciating pain in her foot.Her body felt cold and numb— _no_ , whatever was happening, _no_ —and she panicked.

She tried calling SHIELD but couldn’t get signal.She tried calling the police and found the same issue.

“Are you all right?” one of the children asked her.

Darcy gave a shaky nod.“Just dizzy,” she said.She sat on the dirty floor andstared at her boots.If she took them off, what would she see?

* * *

Jane reappeared.  So did Thor.  Naturally, he brought a thunderstorm with him.

While Jane and Thor kissed it out after a long absence, Darcy stood awkwardly to one side.There was a dry circle around Thor, but it wasn’t really big, and she didn’t want to upset the moment.Only when they broke away did Darcy inch closer.

“My sister,” Thor greeted, clasping her on the shoulder.

“Hey,” she said.“How’s space?”

He smiled.“Space is fine.”

“What about the wars between realms?” she asked, remembering some of what he’d said before he left.

Thor’s face clouded over, and he held Jane closer.“I’m afraid we must take this conversation elsewhere,” he said.“It’s not safe here.”

“What isn’t safe?” Jane asked.

“Is it ever safe?” Darcy asked.

Thor didn’t answer.Instead, he tightened his grip on both Jane and Darcy and called to the sky.

* * *

Darcy felt as if she had been forcibly put aboard the Coney Island Cyclone.  Her body contorted and twisted, and she couldn’t see for the wind in her eyes.  It was dark and bright behind her eyelids and then it was perfectly still.

She blinked her eyes open to find herself in a gold dome, staring at a man in gold armor with gold eyes.

“We have to do that again,” Jane bubbled.

“Lady Foster, Lady Lewis,” the man said, “welcome to Asgard.”

* * *

Thor took them down the Bifrost on horseback.  Darcy had never ridden a horse in her life, but the enormous dark creature Thor had offered her barely jostled her.

“One of my mother’s,” Thor said.There was an odd twist to his mouth as he spoke, something Darcy couldn’t make heads or tails of.

All at once, the expression was gone.They arrived—somewhere important, Darcy guessed, judging by the opulent architecture.Thor said he needed to take Jane somewhere, but Darcy was too busy looking about to catch where.

“Stay here,” Thor said, nodding at Darcy.“I will return.”

“Wait!” Darcy called, but Thor was sweeping Jane away, and Darcy didn’t trust her sense of direction enough to follow.

With a sigh, she looked about.Thor had left her in what looked to be an enormous atrium.There were high ceilings supported by massive pillars, each carved to look like a person.The floors were inlaid with tiles both gargantuan and miniature.If they formed a design, Darcy couldn’t see it, but they were nonetheless beautiful.Behind her was a large set of stairs that led outside, where Darcy could see a cloudless sky and a seemingly endless city.Beyond that was where they’d come: the rainbow bridge Thor had called Bifrost.There, too, was a vast ocean, one that glittered and sparkled until it dropped off suddenly into the abyss of space.

Darcy turned her attention back to the atrium, which, she soon discovered, was not an atrium: it was a throne room.

Gingerly, Darcy approached.The throne was vacant, for the moment.It was raised on a dais, high and imposing.Darcy had almost managed to forget that Thor was a prince.That meant, somewhere, there had to be a king or queen.

“You are Lady Darcy.”

Darcy spun suddenly.There was a woman standing behind her who hadn’t been there before.Darcy swallowed.

“That’s right,” she said.The woman was taller than her, and older, but Darcy could feel _something_ almost emanating from her.Darcy guessed her to be powerful, though she was uncertain of the ramifications of the guess.“Who are you?”

“My name is Frigga,” the woman answered.“I am the mother of Thor and Loki.”

Darcy stood stock still. _Thor’s mother_.That meant she was standing in front of a Queen.She tried to curtsey, not that she’d ever learned how, and Frigga shook her head.

“Come here,” she said.Darcy approached Frigga’s outstretched arms.Frigga framed Darcy’s face with her hands.She did not touch her, but Darcy felt a cool sensation at the back of her neck.Thoughts came to her mind unbidden, and Frigga smiled softly.“Oh, child.It is you.”Darcy didn’t know what to say.Gingerly, Frigga lowered her arms so that her palms rested on Darcy’s biceps.“I think we have much to discuss, you and I.”

* * *

Frigga led her away from the throne room, despite Darcy’s protests that Thor had asked her to remain in one place.  Though much taller than Darcy, she walked slowly, in a stately fashion.  They passed many, and Darcy felt their eyes on her.

“They do not recognize you,” Frigga said.“It has been many centuries since a human walked our halls.You do us an honor with your presence.”

Darcy didn’t feel honored.She felt like a specimen under a microscope, but she had the sense that it wasn’t the right thing to say so she kept her mouth shut.

Frigga was quiet as she led Darcy to an enormous set of gold doors.Inside was a massive set of rooms, all white and gold and gleaming.A mirror lay on a table just inside, and Darcy glanced at it.What she saw was not her reflection, not exactly, and she looked away, stunned.Frigga led her gently away, through a sitting room and a place that looked made for weaving textiles, and finally brought her to a balcony with an enclosed garden.

“At last,” Frigga said, sitting in a carved chair, “we may speak freely.”

She gestured for Darcy to sit.Carefully, she did.The chair didn’t feel like it could support her weight, but it didn’t give way under her.

“Darcy, I would like to begin by offering you my regrets,” Frigga said.She looked Darcy squarely in the eye.“My world has not done kindly by yours in recent times.You have my apologies.”

Darcy shook her head.“No, it’s… Whatever Loki did, it doesn’t reflect on you, or the rest of…Asgard,” she said.

Frigga looked unconvinced.“Loki’s reasons for sending a Destroyer to your world were myriad and complex.I’m afraid we are more to blame than you currently know.”Once more, Darcy didn’t know how to respond.“However, without his actions, I might have never located you.”

Darcy looked up and caught Frigga’s eyes once more.

“Were you looking for me?” Darcy asked.

Frigga sat back.“How much do you know of Loki?”

Darcy bit back the quick response of, _he’s a genocidal mass-murderer who tried to take over the Earth twice in the past two years_.Instead, she said, “I was his soulmate.”

“Was?”

“The mark vanished,” Darcy said.“Something—happened to him.He said that his friends hadn’t originally been so friendly, or something.”

An odd expression crossed Frigga’s face.“You’ve spoken to him?”

Darcy didn’t know how to put their encounter into words.“When he brought those things through the portal, I was there,” she said finally.

Frigga nodded sagely.“Then you have not spoken to him since.”

“No,” Darcy said.“I thought he’d been brought back here for trial.”

Frigga looked away for the first time since they began speaking.“My son has been tried,” she said.“He will spend the rest of his life in the dungeons to atone for his crimes.”She hesitated, then said, “I disagreed with Odin’s decision, but he would not be moved.”

“Odin?” Darcy asked.

“My husband,” Frigga said.“Thor and Loki’s father.”

Darcy thought for a long moment.“Loki isn’t,” she started, stopping when Frigga’s eyes came back to hers with unexpected ferocity.“That is, they don’t…”

“We took Loki in when he was an infant,” Frigga said, “yet he has always been, and will always be, our son.”She spoke with utter finality, and Darcy knew not to push.

“I recognize that my son has made mistakes,” Frigga said softly.“Still, he’s…”

“He’s your son,” Darcy said.“You want him to be happy.You don’t want him to be forgotten in some cell somewhere.”

Frigga smiled, and it hurt.“We made mistakes, with him,” she said.“We lied when we should have been honest.We didn’t know.”She seemed to gather herself for a moment.“My husband does not approve of Jane Foster’s involvement with Thor, nor will he approve of your link to Loki, when he learns of it.”

“There isn’t a link,” Darcy protested.“It’s gone.Whatever happened to Loki, the soulmark vanished.”

“May I ask that you remove your shoes?” Frigga asked.Darcy froze.“You felt it, didn’t you?Its return.”

“No,” Darcy said.

“Please, Darcy,” Frigga said.“I need you to do this.”

Very slowly, Darcy leaned over and tugged at the laced of her boots.She slipped off her socks, and—

She took in a deep breath.

“As I suspected,” Frigga murmured, “the effects wore off.”

“Effects?”

Frigga took in a breath.“My son was tortured,” she said.“I believe the connection between you and he was temporarily severed as a result.Had it remained open, you would have died from the strain on Loki’s mind.”

Darcy swallowed thickly.She remembered telling Loki he couldn’t have her pity.

“I ask that you see him.”

Darcy tugged her sock and shoe back on, knotting the laces.When she sat back up, Frigga was watching her.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said.“I can’t do that.”

“What if I told you,” Frigga said, even as Darcy turned to walk back inside, unsure of where she would go, “that I have seen your future?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” Darcy said.“I _don’t_ believe you.”

“You saw the mirror on your way in,” Frigga said.“True magic has the power to drive the human mind insane, but you nevertheless saw a glimpse of it.It unsettled you.You felt it.”

“I know that you love your son,” Darcy said.She could not turn around.Her world felt like it had been put off-kilter, and she wanted to restore balance.She needed to find Jane, and Thor, and leave.“I know that you would do anything to help him.I don’t love your son, and I don’t share your vision.”

“He cares for you.”

That finally got Darcy to turn around.“Does he?” she asked.“Whatever he’s told you, whatever you’ve _seen_ —he doesn’t know anything about me.If he likes me, he likes the _idea_ of me.Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my friend.”

* * *

Jane looked  _horrible_ .

“Oh my god,” Darcy said, coming to stand next to her.Wrapped in what looked like an enormous cloak, she seemed thin and drawn.“What happened?”

“They call this place the Hall of Science,” Jane whispered. _Leave it to Jane to be excited about science while looking like death_.

Darcy whacked her.“That’s not an answer.”

“Careful, don’t touch her,” Thor warned, coming up behind Jane.To Darcy, he said, “Are you hurt?”

Darcy could have sworn Thor had grown a second head.“What?”

Someone swept in behind Thor.He had a golden eyepatch and a bearing that screamed _I’m in charge_.He led them through a long hall with a tree in it and into what looked like the world’s oldest library.

“There are relics that predate the universe itself.What lies within her appears to be one of them,” the man with the eyepatch said, apparently continuing an earlier conversation.Darcy stole a look at Jane, who was paying rapt attention.Darcy wanted to ask what the hell was happening, but the man was continuing, “The Nine Realms are not eternal.They had a dawn, as they will have a dusk.But before that dawn the dark forces, the Dark Elves, reigned absolute and unchallenged.”

The man picked up a tome and opened it, thumbing through pages until he’d found what he was looking for.

“The Dark Elves of Svartalfheim,” Thor said, nodding once at Darcy.That didn’t explain anything, but everyone ignored her confused expression.“‘Before the eternal night, the Dark Elves come to steal away your light.’ These were the stories mother told to us as children.”

The man with the eyepatch said, “Their leader Malekith, made a weapon out of that darkness, it was called the Aether.While the other relics appear as stones, the Aether is fluid, and ever changing.It changes matter into dark matter, and seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force.Malekith sought to use the Aether’s power to return the universe to one of darkness.But, after eternities of bloodshed, my father Bor finally triumphed, ushering in a peace that lasted thousands of years.”

Jane spoke: “What happened?”

The man with the eyepatch said, “He killed them all.”

Darcy’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline.“ _Jesus_ ,” she muttered.The man with the eyepatch looked at her for the first time and squinted at her, as if trying to place her.Darcy felt as if she stood before Director Fury all over again.

“Are you certain?” Thor asked, drawing the man’s attention away from her.“The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, and yet here it is.”He gestured at Jane.Jane gave Darcy a weak smile that said _later_.

“The Dark Elves are dead,” the man with the eyepatch snapped.

Gingerly, Jane said, “Does your book happen to mention how to get it out of me?”

The man’s expression didn’t change.“No, it does not.”

* * *

“That’s Odin?” Darcy exclaimed when the Allfather had left, presumably to do more searching.  Thor remained with her and Jane for the moment.  “That’s your dad?”

“I see you have spoken with my mother,” Thor said gently.“Darcy, I am sorry.I believed that if I brought you to Asgard, I would protect you.”

“What’s going on?” Darcy asked, looking at Jane.“What happened when I couldn’t find you?”

* * *

Loki had company.  He watched the new arrivals with feigned interest, then turned back to the pale projection of his mo—no, of _Frigga_.

Retreated into a corner of his own mind, Loki hardly registered the words that issued from his lips.He knew them to be unkind—cruel, even—but he could not bring himself to care.He had barely been imprisoned for a year and already he felt himself going mad.He wondered if he expedited the process with his spells and tricks.Would it be so horrible if he did?

From his vantage, though, he sensed that Frigga was hiding something. _Someone_ , more like.There were figures, things he could not see.His cell blocked much of his magic, but when she visited as she did now, he could reach through her, weave his tendrils of magic amongst hers, and see throughout Asgard.He could almost see clearly, except: two figures, both shaded beyond recognition.

“Who are you hiding?” Loki asked.He wondered if those words had actually been spoken aloud, for Frigga did not answer.

He forced himself to say something especially unkind and watched her image fade from view.Better to go mad out of sight, out of mind.He could only hurt himself in here.

* * *

“You’ve been colonized with an alien artifact,” Darcy said at the end of Thor and Jane’s rather short explanation.  “It’s leeching off of you?” Jane nodded miserably.  Darcy rounded on Thor.  “ _What the hell?_ Why is stuff like this just sitting out for someone to find?   Not cool, bro, not cool.”

“When you came for me,” Jane said to Thor, “you knew I was in trouble.How?”

Thor shook his head, adjusting her cloak.“When Heimdall lost sight of you, you were no longer on Earth,” Thor said. _What_.

“How is that possible?” Jane asked.“I mean, it didn’t look like— I couldn’t find Darcy, and it was… But how?”

“I believe you were and you weren’t on Earth.”Thor gestured for Jane to sit.Darcy could see her legs shaking with—exertion?Was she truly so tired from a stroll?Judging from the dark circles under Jane’s eyes, the answer was _yes_.

Thor took Jane’s hands in his own.Darcy turned away from the display, though she kept listening.Asgard looked like nothing she had ever seen before.“The Nine Realms,” Thor began, “travel within Yggdrasil, orbiting Midgard in much the way your planets orbit the sun.Every five thousand years the worlds align perfectly, and we call this the Convergence.During this time the borders between worlds become blurred.It’s possible that you found one of these points.We are lucky that it remained open.”Darcy heard the hitch in Thor’s voice.“Once the worlds pass out of alignment, the connection is lost.”

Darcy saw—no, oddity of oddities, she _felt_ —Frigga approaching.She frowned, momentarily losing track of Thor and Jane.She could _feel_ Frigga coming, though she would have been at a loss as to how to describe the feeling.It was purple flowers, a block of red cloth, a gold thread wound tight around wrists, a soft smile—

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Frigga said.Darcy didn’t know what she was responding to, but she heard Jane squeak and Thor laugh.Carefully, Darcy turned to face Frigga.

Thor stood, still holding one of Jane’s hands.“Jane Foster, please meet Frigga, Queen of Asgard.My mother.I believe you and Darcy have already met,” he said, nodding once in Darcy’s direction.

All of the blood left Jane’s face, and Darcy didn’t envy her, not one bit.Meeting the royal hopefully-one-day-in-laws couldn’t be easy.

“Hi,” Jane said.Darcy snorted, and any dignity that either of them could have mustered went clean out the window.

* * *

Frigga had brought them some clothes that made them stick out just a little less.  If Darcy noticed that her robes tended toward the green side of the color wheel, she didn’t mention it.

* * *

They hadn’t been long on Asgard before the attack began.  Darcy spent much of that time in the library, poring over enormous volumes, searching for answers to Jane’s affliction with the Aether—Frigga had done something so that she could read the unknown letters.  Looking at the pages, Darcy understood all that she read as if she had spoken the language all her life.

“Thor has determined you to be his sister,” Frigga said, carefully not mentioning Loki lest Darcy storm away once more.“It is only fitting that you are granted the Allspeak.”

Darcy didn’t know about any of that, but she did ask, “What about Jane?”

Frigga smiled thinly.Darcy didn’t know if that meant that she would be given the Allspeak if she survived, or something else entirely.Darcy found herself too afraid to ask.

She learned through her long days in that library that the Aether was something called an Infinity Stone.As a matter of fact, it seemed like that cube on Stark Tower—the one that had been used the open the portal—the Tessaract, that’s what it was called—was another one.If assembled with some sort of glove, one of the books Darcy came across claimed that the wielder would rule all, _even Death_.Darcy wondered briefly if Loki had sought that power.Probably.

The alarms ringing in the library scared Darcy into dropping the no-doubt one-of-a-kind book on the ground with a screech.She looked about, but she was alone.There was a distant rumble, an undercurrent to the alarms, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.Was that thunder?Electricity?She heard yells and huddled in place.What was happening?

Something called to her.It was as if someone were speaking her name, but there was no one Darcy could see.Still, she left the library as if in a trance.There were—creatures, she supposed—with masks coming toward her, but she ran past them.She ran past everything.She felt gold thread around her wrist, a mirror breaking, violet petals falling.

 _Frigga_.

She nearly collided with Odin in the throne room.

“Frigga,” Darcy said.It took her a moment to realize that she had been all but chanting the name, actually saying it over and over out loud, not just in her mind.

Something passed over Odin’s face.“Where?” he demanded.Darcy kept running, and he followed.

* * *

Odin set his spear down.

The thing with the knife gutted Frigga anyway.

Darcy _screamed_.

* * *

Loki felt a flicker of something.

_Anguish_ , and curtains being pulled aside, except there was no light that streamed in from beyond them.

He was finally insane.That he saw Darcy’s name on his foot once more just compounded his realization.

* * *

Darcy could not summon a ball of light with which to send Frigga off like the rest of the women of Asgard, but she stood just as attentively, tears welling in her eyes for a woman she’d hardly known.  There were tears and sobs, the entirety of Asgard mourning—all except the prisoners.

 _All except Loki_.

Darcy wondered if he would mourn, when they told him, if he had a heart in that hollow cage of his chest at all.

Odin kept Frigga’s bier aloft until the very last, allowing her to sail just beyond the reaches of the end of the ocean.He had loved her, Darcy knew.He would see to it that the one responsible for her death got his due.

That knowledge did not help Darcy sleep that night, nor the next.She saw Frigga die, again and again and again, a spectator in a scene she had no part in.She took to hiding out in the library, reading as much as she could in the hopes that information—about Dark Elves, about the Aether, about _anything_ —could be found.She read until she went cross-eyed and even then she kept going, knowing what sleep would hold for her.

* * *

Darcy learned of Thor’s plans entirely by accident.

She had left the library, needing sun and some exercise—though she’d learned much about the Infinity Stones, she’d learned far more about Asgard’s political structure, something she wanted to discuss with someone given some time—and she wanted a breather.

Instead, she ran nearly headlong into Thor.

“Woah,” she said, “sorry, I—”

Thor frowned at her the moment she caught sight of the person standing directly behind him.Darcy turned her attention back to Thor.

“What in the—”

Thor put his hand over Darcy’s mouth and backed her into an alcove where they wouldn’t easily be seen.

“I’m sorry,” Thor whispered.

Darcy knocked his hand away, aware that Loki— _Loki,_ what the damn hell—was watching her intently.

“ _What is he doing up here?_ ” Darcy demanded.

“He’s going to help us get the Aether out of Jane,” Thor said.“We have a plan.”

Darcy threw up her hands.“You don’t even have him _restrained_ —”

Loki offered her his wrists.“By you, I would be most gladly so.” Darcy hit him across the face.“Right back to where we started, then,” Loki said.Thor shot him a look, and Loki smiled.“Darcy, so glad to see you well.Had I known you were here I might have asked to see you.”

“I knew you were here and didn’t, so don’t try your luck,” Darcy said.“Thor, explain.”

“We’re going to have the Dark Elves draw out the Aether.As soon as it’s out, I’m going to destroy it.Now I need you to take cover— As soon as Odin realizes what we intend, he’s going to try to stop us.”

Thor made to pull away, but Darcy grabbed at his cloak.

“That’s not going to work,” Darcy said.“Get back here, _that’s not going to work_.”

“It is our only chance,” Thor said.

Loki’s attention was on something down the hall.“We’re going to have company,” he murmured.

“The Aether’s indestructible by all but other Infinity Stones,” Darcy said.Loki turned slowly toward her, raising an eyebrow.“I read it,” she said, slightly defensive.“Yesterday, I think.”

“She gave you the Allspeak,” Loki murmured.He reached toward her, then thought better of it, just as Thor spoke.

“What do you mean, indestructible?” Thor questioned.He, too, looked down the corridor.He hadn’t noticed Loki speak, or if he had, he didn’t say so much.

“You need an Infinity Stone to destroy an Infinity Stone,” Darcy said, looking pointedly away from Loki.“Even then, that’s only theory.Apparently no one’s ever _tried to destroy an Infinity Stone_ before, so there’s that.”

Thor shook his head.“Thank you, sister,” he said, earning a confused look followed by a glare from Loki, “but we must try.Please, hide yourself.”

Loki said something, and Darcy felt the air in front of her change.

“No one will be able to see you until nightfall,” he said.Darcy looked to Thor, who was no longer looking her in the eye but rather at the spot just by her right ear.

“Impressive,” Thor said.He seemed to shake himself for a moment, then said, “We must move.Forgive us.”

* * *

Darcy followed Thor and Loki as far as she could.  They fought, first elves and then other Aesir.  The Warriors Three and Sif appeared to be on Thor’s side as well—Sif in particular fought with such grace that Darcy was momentarily awestruck.

Awestruck, that is, until she realized that she was effectively invisible and so no one knew not to swing their weapons in her direction.She soon fled the majority of the fighting, only to nearly crash into Odin.

As if sensing her presence, Odin looked her way.If he saw her, he gave no indication.After a moment’s thought, Darcy decided to follow him.

Odin threaded through destroyed hallways and across fallen pillars carefully, only to arrive at the throne room.He regarded the throne for a long moment before climbing the stairs and sitting.Gingerly, Darcy stood beside the throne, resting one hand on the ruined back of it.

“Darcy Lewis,” Odin said.

 _Shit_ , Darcy thought.

“My son has cast a spell upon your form,” he said.“I cannot see you, but I know you to be here.”

“Over here,” Darcy said.Odin turned minutely in her direction.“I’m here.”

“You tried to stop them,” Odin said.It wasn’t a question, so Darcy didn’t answer.“As did I.The Aether was never created, it merely _was_ and _continues to be_ , and as such, it cannot be destroyed.You know this from your time in our archives.I have seen you there.You remind me of my son, when he was young.”

Darcy bowed her head, aware that he could not see.

“I have no doubt,” Odin continued, “that whatever course of action Thor has decided upon will shake the very foundations of our universe.I intend to observe as much as I can.You are welcome to remain, should you wish it.”

“Why?”The question was out of Darcy’s mouth before she could reel it back in.When Odin did not immediately answer, Darcy continued, “Jane said that you called her an animal.Fri—the Queen told me you would not approve of my existence.You think humans are beneath you.”

“Access to the royal archives is awarded only to those deemed fit by the line of Asgard,” Odin said.“My wife gave you the freedom to partake of the knowledge of this ream and all others.She bestowed upon you the Allspeak, and permitted you to approach Yggdrasil unaccompanied.Such an honor has not been awarded to any in my lifetime, nor to any as far as I am aware.”Odin paused, and Darcy shook.She’d had no idea—

Odin opened his mouth as if to say something else, then thought better of it.

“I’ll stay, if that’s all right,” Darcy said quietly.

“Place your hand on the throne, then and watch,” Odin instructed.“It will help if you close your eyes, child.”

Darcy did so.Immediately, she could see a boat—Thor, Loki, and Jane, cruising across black sands.

“Svartalfheim,” Odin said.“It has already begun.”

* * *

Darcy and Odin remained in the throne room well into the night, long past the expiration of Loki’s spell.  They watched as the Aether was drawn out of Jane—how Thor and Loki attempted—and failed—to destroy it.

Darcy felt the sand under her feet and the scent of sulfur and burning wood in the air as if it were all around her in reality.

She felt, too, the moment when one of the elves stabbed Loki through the chest.It was as if all of the air had left her body.Darcy couldn’t breathe, couldn’t take in oxygen or anything else.Her grip on the throne faltered, and she fell.

* * *

When she awoke again, she found herself in the room Frigga had—an eternity ago, it seemed—told her would be hers for the time being.

Beside her, staring out the window into darkness, sat Odin.

“You felt it,” Odin said.

Darcy sat up, stretching.Her body ached, and Odin turned to her with silent question.

“He’s still alive,” Darcy said.“I— I would know.”

Odin took in a deep breath, and his shoulders sank in—relief?

“I understand that my son has caused you much anguish,” Odin said.He spoke so quietly, so _gently_ , it was hard to see him as the Allfather.He seemed like a regular father, sad and old and tired.“No doubt he will inflict much more upon you, before this is over.”He hesitated, then returned his gaze to the window.A raven perched in it and seemed to gaze out as well.“How much did—did Frigga tell you about Loki?”

“Not much,” Darcy admitted.That first conversation was hazy.She’d been embarrassed for leaving, particularly after Frigga—“She wanted Loki to have happiness.She wanted me to do something.”

“Did she say what?”

Darcy shook her head.“No,” she said.“She wanted me to talk to him.I think she was reaching for anything to pull him back.”

“He wasn’t always like this,” Odin said.“He was—gentle.Quiet.He kept to himself, and to his mother.I had very little in common with him, even when he was a young boy.I tried—”

Odin stopped himself.

“I found him,” Odin began, “on a rock in Jotunheim.He was small for a Jotun, and he had been left to die.”Odin did something with his hands, and Darcy saw a vision—Odin, younger by quite a bit, holding a blue baby that was rapidly turning pink.“Even then, he was…I brought him to Frigga, who had just given birth to Thor.We determined that we would raise them equally.We failed.”

Darcy swallowed.“What changed?”

“He began to change when he determined that he would not be given the throne.Loki was not malicious, but he wished to defer Thor’s coronation as long as possible.He believed—correctly—that Thor was not ready to rule.After that, however, Loki discovered his true parentage,” Odin answered.“We tried to insulate him, but we failed in that as well.When he discovered that we had lied to him, something inside him warped.He no longer professed to be our child.”

“What was he like, before?” Darcy asked.

Odin was silent for so long that Darcy wondered if she’d spoken at all.Minutes, or maybe hours, passed in absolute silence.The air seemed unnaturally still, as if time had frozen.Perhaps it had.

Odin’s soft voice broke that silence.It cut through the still air, through the dark, and Darcy listened.He spoke of a boy always one step ahead of Thor in many ways, yet so far behind in others.Loki had been compassionate and empathetic, though reserved.He’d gotten along best with the weavers Frigga spent time with.He would spin magic along thread and use it to animate tapestries and other tales.He could make the flowers grow big and tall in the heart of winter, could make it snow in the hottest of weather.Odin told Darcy how Loki once rode to the far reaches of the realm alone to gather herbs for a poultice Frigga had wanted to make, just to see her smile.

(Darcy recognized the horse upon which Loki rode in that vision.Her memory of it was strong: it had been so careful not to scare her on the ride down the Bifrost.)

Odin spoke for so long, Darcy felt herself nodding off.Loki as a young man sounded—charming.Dashing, even.He’d been disappointed not to have a soulmate, but then Aesir had such long lives, it was not uncommon for marks to develop quite late.Loki had told Frigga of his mark upon his return from Vanaheim, and Frigga had embraced him in joy.

“He had never gotten attached to anyone in particular,” Odin said.“To have a soulmate was proof.”

“Proof of what?”

“That he someone outside of his family could love him.”

* * *

When Odin finished an easy silence settled over the two of them.  The sun was rising, and Odin himself seemed a little startled to have spoken for so long.  Darcy felt bone-tired and ravenous.  She wondered about Jane.  She’d be safe with the Aether out of her, but what about the Dark Elves that had it now?  What about Thor and Loki?  Loki wasn’t dead, but—

Odin stood.

“Thank you,” he said.“It has been too long since I have—” He stopped himself, then took a deep breath.“I would remain, but I sense you require rest.”

Darcy stifled a yawn.She was exhausted, but she didn’t want to sleep.“I’d rather not,” she said.“I have nightmares.”

“About Frigga.”Darcy didn’t respond; she didn’t have to.“I will see to it that you sleep well.Good night, Darcy Lewis.”

* * *

True to Odin’s word, Darcy did not dream.  She was out for hours, mind blissfully blank, completely unaware of the world around her.  Asgard could have burned, armies could have clashed, and Darcy wouldn’t have been any the wiser.

* * *

(In another world, she stood in London as Dark Elves came through, as the worlds aligned and apocalypse nearly came into being.)

* * *

In this world, when Darcy awoke, it was to the feeling that all as not quite right.

The sun was high, but the palace was quiet.Darcy knew her way mostly around, and she sought who she could.Odin was not on his throne.No sentries were posted.It was as if the palace were deserted.

As she approached the healing rooms, she discovered why.

Thor had returned with an injured Loki and a healed Jane.While no one but Odin and the healers were allowed inside Loki’s room, there were many soldiers standing watch outside, there to make sure that no one interfered.They took one glance at Darcy and allowed her entrance.

Thor, Jane, and Odin, together with several healers, stood around Loki’s bedside.Darcy stood at a distance, arms crossed, unsure what to do.One of the healers was speaking to Odin, who didn’t look happy with the news.

“ _He will recover_ ,” Odin snapped.The healer just shook her head, unfazed by his outburst.

Jane caught sight of Darcy and came to stand next to her.They embraced, and Jane rested her head on Darcy’s shoulder.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Jane said.

“I’m just glad you’re back to yourself,” Darcy said, holding her friend close.She caught Thor’s eye only to look away.She could comfort Jane, but she didn’t know how to cope with the injuries of a soulmate she still, after all this time, hadn’t properly met.

“Are you Darcy Lewis?”

Darcy looked over Jane’s shoulder to see the healer who had spoken to Odin.

“I am,” she said.

“He’s been asking for you,” the healer said in clipped tones.Darcy didn’t have anything to say to that, and the healer hadn’t been expecting silence.

Darcy squeezed Jane tighter.It was the only thing in all this mess that she’d actually signed up for.Jane squeezed her right back, and Darcy realized that they were really in the same boat.

* * *

Odin sent an army to Svartalfheim.  There were battles on Earth, Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, and Asgard alike.  Thor fought, as did Odin, and by the end of it, Odin proclaimed the Dark Elves to be no more.  Darcy wasn’t sure, but Thor had retaken the Aether, so perhaps it didn’t matter.  Lady Sif and Volstagg escorted it away from Asgard for fear of keeping too many Infinity Stones in one place.

Through it all, Loki remained in healing.Darcy took to bringing books to his room and reading.She’d finally figured out how to play music on Asgard, though it sounded endlessly strange to her ears, and sometimes she brought it when she visited him.He did not speak, and neither did she.She didn’t know what else to do with him.

* * *

“We should go back,” Jane said one day, out of the blue.  They sat by the waterfront, looking out over the glimmering ocean.  Darcy could see the stars even in daylight.

“What?” Darcy asked.

“To Earth,” Jane said.She looked around, then leaned in closer.“Darcy, we don’t belong here.”

Darcy laughed a little.“What’s gotten into you?You’ve finally got Odin’s seal of approval.”

“I know, it’s just,” Jane said, running a hand through her hair.She didn’t finish her thought.

“You miss your research,” Darcy said.

“We’ve been gone for months,” Jane said.“Thor’s been talking about returning to search for Loki’s sceptre, from New York.”Darcy looked at her knees.“Come on, don’t you feel like it’s time?”

In truth, Darcy didn’t.She had neither magic nor fighting force, but she felt at _home_ on Asgard.She’d been studying the political structure, attending meetings with Thor and Odin.As a newly recognized member of the House of Odin, Darcy was listened to, _respected_ , even.If she went back, she wouldn’t have that.

“I go where you go,” she said.

Something changed in Jane’s expression.“You don’t want to leave.”Darcy looked away.“Is it Loki?Is it—”

“No,” Darcy said quickly.“He’s— He’s still not altogether awake, but that’s not it.I don’t know.I couldn’t explain if I tried.”Darcy took in a deep breath.“I feel _good_.I feel necessary here.It’s… I’ve never felt like someone _needed_ me until I came here, except when I met you.”

Jane hesitated, then pulled Darcy forward into a tight hug.

“Whatever you decide to do,” Jane said, “anything at all, you know I’m going to support you, right?”

“I know,” Darcy said.She felt like crying, and she buried her face into the crook of Jane’s neck.“And I know this will still be here if I go back with you, it’s just—”

“It’s all right,” Jane said.She stroked Darcy’s hair.“You don’t need to explain, it’s all right.”

* * *

In the end, Darcy returned with Jane.  She told herself it was only temporary, and it helped, somewhat.

Earth was mostly the way Darcy remembered it.She’d missed coffee more than she remembered.Watching the news wasn’t nearly as good as she’d thought, though.Primary elections, congressional hearings, national summits—it was all different. _Darcy_ was different.For one thing, she no longer needed subtitles when listening to foreign broadcasts: the Allspeak permitted her to speak and understand every language.

“Whensoever you wish to return,” Heimdall had said, just before opening the Bifrost, “call to me, and so long as your return does not jeopardize the safety of this realm, Bifrost shall remain open to you.”

Since returning, Jane had been nominated for a Nobel Prize, and Thor was on the heels of HYDRA with the Avengers.

Even so, when it was all over, Darcy absolutely intended to take Heimdall up on that offer.

* * *

As soon as Darcy was off of Asgard, Loki rose from his rest.

She had sat beside him for hours, while she had been here.So close, yet so far away.He had felt better, while she was close.He could feel Frigga’s magic still on her skin, could sense her contentment.It helped him clear his mind.

Their meeting hadn’t gone anything like as planned.He absolutely intended to make up for that—someday soon.As soon as he was capable.

“My son,” Odin said.Loki turned, surprised to see the old man about.

“Allfather,” Loki rasped.His voice was rough and gravelly from disuse.

Odin came to sit beside him.Loki did not shy away.

“She is strong,” Odin said.“As intuitive and spirited as you were.”Loki bowed his head.“I require rest,” Odin continued.“This past war has cost us many lives.”

“Because we failed,” Loki murmured.“Darcy tried to tell us.”

Odin held up a hand.“What is done is done,” he said.“My son, there is much for us to discuss, before I rest.If not for my sake, then for your mother’s, for Darcy’s, I must know all that you can tell me.”

Loki thought of his residual resentment for Odin—for lying, for failing Frigga—and of his own crimes.He considered his mother, his brother, Darcy.

And Loki spoke.


End file.
